Williams struggles slightly in warming up tyres
In another fiercely fought qualifying battle, AT&T Williams team drivers Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima both eased into Q2, Nico entering in P5 and Kazuki in P15. Kazuki, however, was unable to progress past Q2 and was left in P15 at the flag. Glock’s 5-place penalty promotes Kazuki to 14th on the grid for the race. Nico fared somewhat better making it into the final round of quali, therefore maintaining his unblemished record this season, and ended the deciding session with the 7th fastest.
Nico Rosberg: "This is where we are at the moment. We are the fourth best team out there so seventh place is more or less where we expected to be. We struggled slightly in warming up the tyres, but otherwise I am quite pleased. Strategy-wise, we are looking good and I’m not worried about our race pace. If you look at Malaysia we were pretty strong in the race even though the tyres are a challenge, both hard and soft. We’ll have to see how everyone around us looks in terms of fuel. It would be good if, after Australia and Malaysia, things would go a bit more our way tomorrow. I must say that, for me, today’s surprise was Alonso."
Kazuki Nakajima: "The car is as competitive as it was in Malaysia and we’re still making progress, so this result is a shame. I really hope I can do better in the race, but we first need to look at our data and see what was going on with the car and try to resolve it. We’ll do our best to get a good strategy in place as you never know what can happen in a Grand Prix."
Sam Michael, Technical Director: "It’s disappointing that Kazuki wasn’t higher today. With Nico, we could have done better in managing his run in Q3, but it didn’t work out as planned today. We should have a more competitive race pace, so we’re looking forward to a good performance tomorrow."
