MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Driver’s Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher achieved a double-points finish for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza today as the pair came home in fifth and ninth places respectively.
Both drivers had good starts which helped to make up places on their grid positions as they drove strong races with Nico pitting on lap 35 and Michael making his stop one lap later. Nico was competing with the late-stopping Sebastian Vettel for fourth place in the final laps but was unable to get ahead of the Red Bull driver.
NICO ROSBERG
“Fifth place was an ok result today except for losing the place to Sebastian at the end there. It was a tough fight and I was pushing to the maximum throughout the race, firstly with Robert at the start and then with Sebastian towards the end. We got the most out of the car this weekend and another double-points finish is good for the team plus it is nice to be ahead of Robert again in the Drivers’ Championship.”
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“I had a quite clean race and I am pretty happy about my start. It was tight with lots of action so lots of nice fighting. Unfortunately I had to give away two positions to Sebastian and Mark as I just could not keep them behind me. From there onwards, the race was pretty lonely really. However we got the maximum out of it considering where we started from and together with Nico, we scored some important points for the team, so I would say it was a decent race.”
ROSS BRAWN
“We achieved a very respectable result today with two cars in the points which is just the kind of race that we need to have for the rest of the season. Nico and Michael made great starts, showing their experience and maturity, and then drove strong races. Whilst we were not on the pace of the front-runners, we were the strongest of the group behind and Nico did a fantastic job to try and keep Vettel behind but it just wasn’t quite possible. Michael had a very good race to get up into the points and with good work in the pits by the team, this led to another double-points finish.”
NORBERT HAUG
“We scored points with both drivers today which is good. After a great start, Nico drove a strong race which moved him up two positions to fifth place and he posted the third fastest lap of the race, quicker than three of the four guys ahead of him. Michael improved from 12th place on the grid to ninth position at the finish. Needless to say that we are not satisfied with such positions in the longer term but I am definitely satisfied that the team achieved the best possible results today. Thank you to everyone for all of their hard work here in Monza.”
