The third day of testing on the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona was highly fruitful and productive for MERCEDES GP PETRONAS. As earlier announced, the German-British team led by Ross Brawn has taken a step-by-step approach for the trying out the essential components of the package for the first race of the 2011 season. Engineers fitted the Silver Arrow with different technical parts each day and thus separately evaluated their efficiency in usage. Today, Michael Schumacher nailed it and set the fastest time of the day, proving that MERCEDES GP PETRONAS has managed to surpass the difficult period and to offer a consistent racing package for the upcoming Australian Grand Prix (25th to 27th March). Nico Rosberg was also offered the chance to drive the W02 car towards the end of the afternoon session to experience the upgrades on dry conditions, given the fact rain is expected tomorrow, and classified 3rd in the time sheets, to once again show the improved pace of the Mercedes single-seater.
Read the official report of the day and see more photos after the break!
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Barcelona, Spain, Mar 11, 2011
Michael Schumacher completed the majority of the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team’s programme in Barcelona today on the third day of this week’s test, with Nico Rosberg taking over for the final hour of the day.
- The team added further new aerodynamic parts to its upgrade package today
- Michael’s programme focused on aerodynamic evaluations and qualifying exercises
- He set the fastest time of the day, 1:21.268, during a qualifying simulation
- Nico took over the car at 16:00hrs to experience the new developments on a dry track, ahead of expected rain tomorrow
- Michael and Nico completed 89 laps between them, taking the team’s pre-season mileage to 5596 kms
The team plan for both Michael and Nico to drive during the fourth and final day of the test tomorrow.
Michael Schumacher: “We have been developing the car step-by-step this week with new parts arriving each day. So our focus today has been on understanding how to get the best from the car now that it is pretty much in its final configuration for the first time. The car has behaved as we expected and it’s been a very productive day. We completed our programme and I should also be able to get some experience of the expected wet conditions tomorrow.”
Nico Rosberg: “First of all, it’s super that I was able to do some laps today, given the forecast for tomorrow. It was a good few laps, and obviously now that we have most of the developments for the car, it was handling much better and I had a good feeling. So I’m pretty pleased with the situation and would like to thank the whole team for getting everything onto the car that we wanted. We’ve made good progress over the winter.”
TIMES
* Official photo and report courtesy of MERCEDES GP PETRONAS *
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