Yes ladies and gentlemen, after struggling with yet another morning of our aggravatingly-sporadic internet connection we are indeed back, bringing you once again your daily dose of Mercedes-flavored news and information.

Unfortunately, it's been a rather slow day for Mercedes news, aside from an event that took place over the weekend.  For those of you who missed it, this weekend marked the sixteenth F1 race of the season, and guess what?  We have the recap. As always, if you have it TIVO'd, read no further; otherwise, keep reading for the full details.

In qualifying, the team performed well, with Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa battling a wet and slippery track to take the fifth and seventh starting positions, respectively.

From the start, Kimi's car looked strong, with the Finn managing to move into fourth on the first corner and then moving up into third on the back straight before the end of the opening lap.

On lap 13 Kimi moved up again, overtaking Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault to capture second.  At the end of lap 16, Kimi entered the pits for the first time, resuming in sixth directly behind his teammate.  Meanwhile, de la Rosa entered the pits for the first time on lap 17, resuming the race in eighth.

Unfortunately for Kimi, as has been the case numerous times this year, his good fortune was about to end. On lap 19, Kimi suffered from a throttle mechanism failure, forcing him to retire early.

For Pedro, luck was at least somewhat more on his side.  After a refueling stop on lap 36 followed by a spin, de la Rosa was still holding the eighth position.  By lap 49, Pedro had moved up into seventh, and after a number of drivers were involved in rain-related spins on the second-to-last corner, he managed to move into fifth place where he finished.

Michael Schumacher of Ferrari finished the race in first position, followed by Renault's Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella.

For more information, keep reading for the full press release complete with race recap and driver interviews.








OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


F1 China: Pedro de la Rosa Fifth

Shanghai, Oct 01, 2006

The start: Kimi, fifth in qualifying, took fourth place by running round the outside of the first corner then took third place from Jenson Button (Honda) on the back straight before the end of the opening lap. Pedro was running in seventh place, just as he had started from the grid.

The race: Kimi overtook Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) to take second place on lap 13. The Finn made his first scheduled refuelling stop at the end of lap 16 (9.3sec) and resumed sixth directly behind his team mate. The Spaniard came in for his first stop a lap later (7.7sec) and dropped from fifth to eighth when he went back into the race.

On lap 19 Kimi stopped with throttle mechanism failure.

Following the first round of refuelling stops by lap 30 Pedro was running in sixth place and on lap 36 made his second refuelling stop (10.3sec). After his stop, he had a spin, which dropped him to eighth place, but by lap 49, he was in seventh place. During a turbulent closing phase when it began to rain again and several cars were involved in spins at the second-to-last corner, Pedro moved up to fifth where he finished.

Comments

Pedro de la Rosa: "A difficult race for everybody. I made a wrong call after the first stint when I asked my engineer for a different set of intermediate Michelin tyres. In hindsight I should have stayed on the ones I had, like Kimi, as the track was drying, and I suffered from graining. This lost me a lot of time but apart from that our pace was good. I didn’t see much of what happened towards the end of the final lap. It had started raining slightly again, and we were all on dry weather tyres coming into what is a hard braking area. I was lucky to stay out of trouble and gained two places as a result. Our car seems to be on the pace. I'm sure we will win a race before the end of the year."

Kimi Räikkönen: "That was a shame as it was looking like we could achieve a win today. I don't know exactly what happened, but all of a sudden the throttle didn't react correctly and the engine went into safety mode and selected neutral. I made a good start and then got on the outside and gained a couple of places – it was a bit tight, so I didn't manage to get past Fisichella at that point. I overtook him later on and was gaining on Alonso before my first scheduled pitstop. I'm disappointed, but at least we showed that we have the speed, so I'm looking forward to Japan now."

Ron Dennis, Team Principal: "Obviously an action packed Grand Prix. Kimi's strategy and car set-up were more than capable of winning the race. Unfortunately, a failure of the engine throttle mechanism forced him to retire. Pedro struggled with front-end grip and had a spin following his pitstop. However he did well to finish fifth and the entire team now looks forward to the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka next weekend."

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "An eventful race which began promising with Kimi running second. However, a problem with the throttle activation system led to his retirement. The reason for this is being investigated. Kimi's lap times were strong and good enough to win the race. Pedro drove a solid race, had a spin after changing to grooved tyres and came home fifth. With two more races to go we want to clinch the victory we missed today."

Copyright © 2006, DaimlerChrysler AG