Maldonado shines, Senna stuck in 15th
Williams saw its drivers qualify far apart from each other as Pastor Maldonado qualified fourth and Bruno Senna 15th for tomorrow’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Maldonado improved throughout the sessions and finally put in a great lap to secure his best qualifying since Singapore earlier this year.
• Pastor improved throughout the session to put together a great final lap in Q3 of 1: 41.226.
• Bruno had a difficult session with car problems in Q1 and hindered by traffic to finish Q2 in 15th.
• With continued strong long run pace, the team is confident of pushing for two good points finishes tomorrow.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer:
"Pastor has been very strong all weekend showing good race pace on Friday. We worked hard on the qualifying balance throughout the weekend which ultimately paid off today with Pastor delivering an excellent fourth in Q3. Bruno has found it a bit more difficult this weekend. His first run in qualifying was hampered by a car problem that was quickly fixed prior to his second run but unfortunately he didn't quite have the pace to transition into Q3, finishing 15th in what is a tight grid."
Pastor Maldonado:
"It was a difficult session, especially in Q2 as we were on the limit in P10, but I saw the potential in the car. We then found a great balance in Q3 and I’m happy that we are back to looking strong again. I think we showed throughout all the weekend that we are competitive and I did my best in qualifying. I’m really happy for the team, for myself and looking forward to the race tomorrow. Points are very important for us so I will be pushing to the maximum."
Bruno Senna:
"I never want to be out of the top ten in qualifying but this weekend we have had a few problems, so that is how it is. Hopefully tomorrow the car will be quick in the race as we have a competitive car. We'll work hard tomorrow and will still be trying to get into the points. For sure it is a track with some overtaking opportunities with the DRS so hopefully we can make some use of that and use it to our advantage."
