Williams fined, investigating wheel nut issues

Even though a regulation change amended at the Singapore GP was set to prevent wheels from coming off, Williams' Pastor Maldonado had once again a problem with the right front wheel coming loose, and yet again that led to a fine issues by the FIA.

Williams were already fined at Suzuka for a loose wheel, and even though this time it didn't come this far, a few more corners would certainly have thrown the right front wheel off the car.

A few corners down the road after a normal pitstop, Pastor Maldonado reported "something was not quite right with the right front", after which the wheelnut flew off and loosened the wheel on the hub. Maldonado immediately parked the car and saw his session cut short.

The team was again fined for the incident, just as in Japan.

A FIA statement read: "The stewards decide that a fine of 60,000 Euros is the most appropriate penalty in this case taking into account that this was the second offence, but on this occasion the wheel was retained."

Williams is now still investigating what caused this issue, and whether or not is is related to previous problems with the wheelnuts.

"Unfortunately we had to cut Pastor's run short as we had a problem with the front-right wheel nut following a pitstop", said Xevi Pujolar, Williams' Chief Race Engineer. We are still investigating what happened."

Apart from that, both drivers were pleased with the progress made as the team continued to try out changes to the cars.

"We completed some aerodynamic tests on both cars during FP1 and overall the drivers happy were happy with the car. As always we see understeer at this circuit so we continued to make changes to the set-up as the track conditions improved throughout the day. We made some changes to the rear wing level in FP2 to improve our top speed and were planning long runs with both drivers to evaluate the tyres."