With Rosberg having been taken out of the action by Williams’ Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher was finally forced to pit and abandon his car on the 21st tour following first-lap contact with Jaime Alguersuari, also at Turn 3.

“This was the toughest weekend of our 20 races as Mercedes GP,” said Haug, Vice President for Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. 

“From the first practice session, we had various technical problems which we did not experience during our pre-season testing preparations of more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles).

“Nico and Michael were handicapped in their ability to set the cars up in the best possible way and our performance was not where it should be. We need to resolve our problems ahead of the next race and everybody will work very hard to achieve that within the next ten days.

“Sorry for all the hard-working people in our team for not having a better start to the 2011 season, but we will improve soon.”