Williams drivers admit mistakes in qualifying
Pastor Maldonado finished 9th and Bruno Senna 13th in qualifying for tomorrow’s Indian Grand Prix. Pastor was fastest in Q1 with a time of 1:26.048, but a mistake on the final corner of his final lap in Q3 moved him down the order. Bruno also looked strong in Q1, but a mistake on his final lap in Q2 put him out of the top 10.
Both drivers will be looking to secure some points in tomorrow’s race after demonstrating strong and consistent long run pace all weekend.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer:
"Both drivers did well today with the car having the pace to get into Q3. Bruno, who has been very good all weekend, easily moved through to Q2 but had a mistake on his new option tyre lap which ultimately cost him a top 10 position, finishing in 13th. Pastor's pace picked up significantly from P3 to qualifying but he locked his brakes in the last corner which put him in an unrepresentative ninth. We showed good long run pace on Friday and with further car improvements through the weekend we expect to have two strong races with both drivers fighting for points."
Pastor Maldonado:
"I made a small mistake on the final corner of my final lap which lost me quite a lot of time so I don’t think ninth is reflective of our true pace today. We were not as quick as we needed to be yesterday but we worked really hard to understand why and the car felt much better today. We’re back challenging in Q3 so there are lots of positives we can take from today’s qualifying, and our race pace seems to be competitive so I’m optimistic about my chances tomorrow."
Bruno Senna:
"I made a mistake on my lap which is disappointing because I would have been in the top 10 if that hadn’t happened. We showed good pace in this morning’s practice and in Q1 as well as a clear improvement over the last couple of races so things are going in the right direction. We’ve been strong on our longer runs so hopefully I can make up some places tomorrow and get into the points."
