Turkish GP: Mercedes Friday report

The first of the practice sessions for the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix got underway today at the Istanbul Park circuit.

The MERCEDES GP PETRONAS drivers, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, spent the two ninety-minute sessions focusing on the evaluation of the team's new developments for their MGP W01 cars and working on the balance, set-up and tyres around the challenging 5.338km circuit.

Nico completed 47 laps finishing the day in sixth position with Michael completing 46 laps in seventh place.

NICO ROSBERG
"We made some good progress today and have been working hard with our updates for the car. It wasn't a perfect day as we lost some time in the process of evaluating the new developments, particularly in the second session, so I was playing catch-up this afternoon. However we achieved a lot of interesting work and arrived at a decent balance by the end of the day so I am reasonably happy. We have a few question marks remaining and it will be a busy final practice session tomorrow. The early indications are that we have made a decent step forward and although we don't know how much yet, it is a good job from the guys at the factory and at the track to get everything here and working."

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
"It's really difficult to judge what the current picture is after today's practice sessions, especially as we don't know who was running on what fuel loads. We certainly have some improvements on the car which you can notice but it is very difficult to quantify the full effects coming from Monaco to here and thus not having a clear reference and comparison. Clearly the improvements are in the right direction but as always it is a matter of how quick we develop compared to our competitors. Turn eight is still a nice challenge here. It has small surprises in terms of bumps and it is fun to drive obviously. It is exciting and technical at the same time. Let's wait and see what is going to happen tomorrow."

ROSS BRAWN
"Today's two practice sessions were particularly busy for the team as we had our first opportunity to evaluate our new developments on the track. Without track testing it is always a challenge to bring new parts directly onto the car but we were able to achieve some good work today. Both drivers are reasonably happy but as always, we will not be able to make a valid judgement on our progress until the end of the weekend."

NORBERT HAUG
"Quite a busy start into the weekend for us. The team evaluated different aero options and in the end our long run pace in race conditions looked quite promising."

-source: mercedes