Mercedes laments lack of track time during Friday practice

Both Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg experienced a tough opening two practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, preventing the team from running their full programme during the two 90 minute sessions. Rosberg suffered an oil pressure issue during practice one, whereas Schumacher spun in practice two.

After the surprise signing of Lewis Hamilton prior to the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, Mercedes were enjoying their time in the limelight. However, the Brackley-based outfit were brought back to earth with a bump during the two opening practice sessions at Suzuka, as a plethora of issues plagued the team throughout the majority of the day. The first practice session ran relatively incident free for the team, until Nico Rosberg was forced to stop his car on the circuit after an oil pressure issue on his car.

This forced the Mercedes mechanics to change the 27-year-old’s engine over the lunch period, thus hindering their time on track as the second practice session got underway. Whilst the other teams circulated the Suzuka circuit, collecting valuable data, both Mercedes drivers remained stuck in the pits as Rosberg’s engine was changed and Schumacher’s setup was greatly altered.

“We had a tricky day.” Explained Nico Rosberg, “At the end of the first practice session, the oil pressure sensor told me the system was low on pressure so I switched off the engine. It was coming to the end of its life, so we changed it during lunch to avoid any risks, but it cost some running time this afternoon. We are still not where we want to be in terms of performance and we will have to learn some lessons overnight, in order to make sure we have our tyre management under control.”

Mercedes’ woes didn’t stop there, as Michael Schumacher dipped a wheel onto the grass on the entrance to turn 13 and spun into the barriers. The F1 veteran suffered light damage to his Mercedes W03 machine, and prematurely ended his session walking back to the pits after enduring a tough opening day at Suzuka.

“We had two quite eventful sessions today, with a lot of work on the cars and my off in the afternoon.” Said Michael Schumacher, who will incur a ten-place grid penalty this weekend. “I think I was already concentrating too much on the corner ahead of me and therefore had a wheel on the dirt and went off. Overall, we had not been able to collect as much data as we would have wanted, as we had a lot of breaks working on adjustments to the cars, and we will also have to improve the balance. Obviously, with these temperatures the tyres will be a limiting factor, too. We will now certainly have to work a lot off the track, in front of the computers, and try to find the best approach for tomorrow.”

Mercedes will be hoping their luck picks up through final practice and qualifying tomorrow, as the team aim for a decent qualifying performance, especially with Schumacher’s ten-place grid penalty. The German was penalized for his violent collision with Jean-Eric Vergne during the Singapore Grand Prix, and will therefore start the race no higher than 11th on the grid.

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