Mercedes disappointed with Montreal qualifying

Michael Schumacher

Mercedes had been viewed as major contenders in Canada, not least because their Super DRS was expected to deliver the goods with the long back straight in Montreal. Instead, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher qualified just fifth and ninth on Saturday. Furthermore, a miscalculation meant the latter missed out on a final lap in Q3.

“Well, this certainly was not how we had planned our qualifying to be today," began the seven-time World Champion, who last won in Canada in 2004. “Our calculation for Q3 was to go for two laps and attack on the second one, after we had seen at the beginning of Q3 that one lap did not work properly.

“I don't really know how we managed not to make it over the line early enough to start the second lap but, when I passed the line, the team told me it was too late. We could not have achieved pole today as we could not do the times the guys up front were doing, but I could most likely have been able to do the time I was doing earlier in qualifying and start the race from a bit of a better position. I now have to take it how it is and make the attack in the race tomorrow that I could not do today."

With the same Mercedes engine, the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton qualified second.