Mercedes satisfied with uneventful race

Mercedes duo Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg collected a solid 14 points for the team in Spain.

While Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso flirted with each other at the front of the race, Mercedes ran a pretty unmemorable but sold race to take sixth and seventh place around Circuit de Catalunya.

But while sixth and seventh sounds pretty dull, the order in which they finished will please many with Schumacher beating his team-mate, an achievement the seven-time World champion doesn't often manage these days.

'We managed to make the most out of our possibilities today which is good news, especially for our guys who I am happy for. I had a good start; going right through the middle was tight but fortunately it worked out. Then the race was about holding position from there. We can be happy with the result but other than that, it was just tricky with oversteer, tyre degradation and poor balance to deal with. Still we achieved what we could have.' Schumacher told formula1.com.

But while Schumacher appeared to get the upper-hand on his Mercedes team-mate for once, mechanical issues prevented Nico Rosberg from turning it into a fair battle.

'It was a difficult race for me after I lost radio communication with the team early on which was tough, and my DRS was not working properly which made any overtaking almost impossible. I had fun in the battle with Michael for P6, although I wasn't able to attack him fully and was therefore stuck behind him for most of the race.' Rosberg concluded.

Mercedes-Benz Motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug added: 'We achieved the result that was possible for us today with Michael in sixth and Nico in seventh place. Michael had a great start on new options and gained four places which was the foundation of his final result. Nico suffered from various problems; from a radio which did not work to a rear wing malfunction.'

'Our strategy and our pit stops worked very well but our speed was not where it needs to be. The fact that everybody behind Red Bull and McLaren Mercedes was lapped today shows that there is a lot of work to do for the rest of the field.'