Williams lacks pace at Monza
Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello finished in 11th and 12th positions for AT&T Williams at the Italian Grand Prix today. After making a good start off the line, Rubens got caught up in a first lap incident as Tonio Liuzzi lost control of his HRT and made contact with both Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov.
After avoiding the initial action, Rubens picked up damage to the front wing of his Williams-Cosworth FW33. During a brief safety car period as the marshals cleared the track, Rubens pitted for a new nose and fresh set of tyres before steadily making his way back through the order after the restart to finish in 12th. Pastor also made a clean start from 14th on the grid and after avoiding the first lap incident, was running in seventh ahead of his first pitstop. After losing time during the second stint on the softer compound tyres, he finished the race in 11th place.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: "We didn't have the pace to score points today. Rubens was caught up in the first corner incident through no fault of his own but recovered the car to change his front wing. He then began chasing up to the back of the pack during the safety car, although not making it to the back of the field as the race restarted. From that point onwards, we had him scheduled to make just one more stop to try to take advantage if something unusual happened. Pastor had a great position after the safety car and a decent first stint, but we didn't have the pace in the following stints to hold on to the position. Our focus is now on Singapore to put the next upgrade on the car for the remaining races."
Pastor Maldonado: "I had a great start and made up a lot of positions while also avoiding the accident. The pace at the beginning was quite strong, but in the second stint we started to lose time and it was difficult to maintain that good rhythm. At the end of the race we had a consistent pace but unfortunately it just wasn’t quick enough."
Rubens Barrichello: "I had a brilliant start, gaining three or four positions as we headed into the first corner, but then I saw an HRT come past. I was lucky he didn’t hit me but I was then in the middle of the action and so had to stop the car. I didn’t hit anyone, but when Rosberg started to move he hit my nose, it was a difficult situation. It’s a shame I got caught in that, as with the pace and the strategy I could have scored some points for the team today."
