• Turkish Grand Prix - FP2

Mercedes cautious over setup

Nico Rosberg was within 0.1s of the fastest time of the day © Getty Images

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• Report:
• Button quickest in Turkey practice
  

• Race:
• Turkish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Ross Brawn
• |
• Nico Rosberg
• |
• Michael Schumacher

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Ross Brawn says that Mercedes are yet to find the right balance for the car, despite setting the 2nd and 4th fastest times in practice for the Turkish Grand Prix.

After an encouraging race last time out in China, Mercedes appeared to continue its good form as it challenged McLaren at the top of the timesheets during the dry second session. Brawn said that the first session had been a good opportunity to test the car in different conditions, but that there was still further work to be done.

"We had a good opportunity this morning to see what the car was like in the wet conditions. It was also the first time that Michael had really driven the car in the wet, so that's useful as the conditions this weekend could still be mixed. Then we had a nice dry session this afternoon and completed a lot of work on low and high fuel. The balance of the car isn't there yet and there is a lot of work ahead, but the team and drivers have worked very well today." Michael Schumacher agreed with Brawn's assessment, saying that he had some setup issues, but was confident that the car would be as competitive as it was last time out in Shanghai.

"We had quite a positive Friday, and it was especially good that we were able to test both wet and dry tyres. I hadn't really driven the wets so I'm pleased that I finally had some opportunity to use them. Also, my sessions were quite eventful with three spins in Turn 11. All in all, our car confirmed the performance improvement from China, so we can look forward to the rest of the weekend. We still have some questions relating to the set-up but I am confident we will sort them out tomorrow."

Having just been beaten to the quickest time of the day by Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg was more optimistic, saying that he was pleasantly surprised by the way his car was suiting the track.

"We have made a decent start to the weekend and I am optimistic for tomorrow. We had a productive afternoon and tried a lot of things with the car. I didn't have too many problems with the tyres on the long run and I was quite surprised by the grip levels, which were higher than I expected. The wet tyres had a lot of grip this morning too. I'm happy with what we learned and expecting a very interesting time tomorrow and on Sunday."

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