Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn has admitted that he and his team are praying for a wet race at Spa-Francorchamps this afternoon in order to try and make up for their qualifying penalties and poor grid positions.
The Mercedes team has struggled to get onto the pace of the leading teams at Spa-Francorchamps so far this weekend. And their situation was complicated with both drivers taking post-qualifying grid drops.
Nico Rosberg was given a five place penalty for a gearbox change after the final practice session, while Michael Schumacher took a ten place drop as punishment for his dangerous driving with Rubens Barrichello in Hungary.
The penalties mean that Rosberg will start 14th, with Schumacher back in 21st place.
But Brawn said that he still feels the team can rescue some sort of result from the weekend if the race is run in wet conditions.
"We are hoping for rain of course. With Nico in particular, when we knew he had to drop five places, he went for quite a soft set-up with emphasis on wet performance," Brawn explained on Sunday morning in the paddock.
"It is interesting when you are in our position, that you can be more adventurous in the decisions you make in difficult races because you have got little to lose and it can sometimes work out."
He added: "In both races on Saturday [GP2 and GP3] there were safety cars right at the beginning, and that could work out for us as well.
"We will be pretty adventurous and if there are changeable conditions or safety cars we will try and take advantage of them."
Meanwhile, Rosberg agreed that there was still hope if it rained, saying: "It is not definitely ideal, with both of us getting penalties.
"But knowing that I was going to start between 13th and 17th, I went for a quite aggressive rain set-up, so I am hoping for rain."
He added: "That will be a good chance to achieve something. In wet conditions it felt quite good out there with slicks so I think we can do well if it rains. I hope."
Schumacher suggested that: "We know that we are, out of our own efforts, unable to win the race - that is pretty clear to everybody."
"But with these particular weather conditions we will face this weekend, who knows what is going to happen. We just have to make sure to be ready for it."
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