Mercedes at Hockenheim 'a catastrophe'

Nico Rosberg and his slow Mercedes

(GMM) While Sebastian Vettel delighted his German fans at home on Saturday, there were no smiling faces at Mercedes GP. Although based in England, the self-proclaimed German national team had a poor qualifying session at Hockenheim, with Nico Rosberg only scraping into the top-ten.

And on the occasion of the first German grand prix featuring a works Mercedes team since 1954, Michael Schumacher was showered and changed when he spoke to the media, having failed to graduate into the final phase of qualifying.

"For us it was an absolute catastrophe," Rosberg told German television Sky. "I don't know what was going on.

"I cannot be that I'm 1.4 seconds away from Red Bull now," he added.

Mercedes arrived in Germany this weekend with a tweaked F-duct system and improvements to its Red Bull-style rear of the car.

"The car is not working this weekend," admitted team boss Ross Brawn.

"We have many new parts but they're not working in harmony with one another. The car seems to be very unpredictable," said the Briton.