Short and disappointing final race of 2012 for Williams
The Williams F1 Team experienced a disappointing end of the 2012 F1 season at Interlagos this afternoon as both Pastor Maldonado and home driver Bruno Senna were forced to retire in the first few laps of the Brazilian GP.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: "Both cars had excellent starts getting up into the top 10. Unfortunately Bruno got hit by Vettel who cut across him on the apex of Turn 4 on the first lap and this stopped the car. Pastor was running in eighth position at the start of the second lap having gained eight positions on the first lap, but hit the wet kerb on the exit of Turn 3 which pushed him off the track and into the tyre barrier prematurely ending his race."
Pastor Maldonado: "We had an excellent start moving up several places but unfortunately I lost the rear of the car at Turn 3. It was a slippery surface and there wasn’t much grip which caught us by surprise at the beginning. There wasn’t much we could do so we were unlucky today."
Bruno Senna: "I had a good start and was racing well but unfortunately I had an incident when Sebastian tried to take the apex and there was nowhere to go. This is racing and sometimes these things happen. I want to take the opportunity to thank the fans who were such a big support at my home Grand Prix as it always makes a big difference.."
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: "It was a very short and disappointing race for us. All the same one win and 76 points in our first year of working with Williams is a great start. The relationship has blossomed and the performance shown at the end of the year gives a lot of encouragement for next season. We will go back to Viry and Grove and continue in this vein, expecting to better this in 2013."
