Superb Rosberg
It was a superb day for Williams F1 Team today in Bahrain. Rookie Nico Rosberg made a great Grand Prix debut at the Sakhir circuit. Rosberg finished 7th just behind team mate Mark Webber, who also drove an amazing race today.
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1 “Our final positions today don’t reflect our real pace as the car was fast and we were perhaps a bit too conservative on our pit stop strategy by running too long at the start. However, looking at the FW28 over the race, it is clear that we have a strong car aerodynamically and mechanically. With all of the new partnerships that we have, today is a credit to all involved. The tyres worked fantastically, we couldn’t have asked for better, as our long runs on Friday with Alex indicated. Unfortunately on qualifying day, the track was a bit too cool for our compound compared to the other Bridgestone runners, but today the compound was perfect. Together with our other technical partner, Cosworth, it is clear we have a good combination. Mark drove a solid race, start to finish. Nico made mistake at turn one, which cost him 45s on his in lap and pitstop – without this, he would have been on the podium and he did record the fastest lap of the race. For his first race, it’s a fantastic result. Our target now is to turn up in Malaysia and deliver the goods.”
Mark Webber “Today’s race was superb, a really good job by the whole team, we really could not have asked for more. Having both cars finishing was very useful, we have collected a lot of data and this will help with our understanding of the tyres. Malaysia will be a different race altogether and our performance today will really help with our preparation for next weekend.”
Nico Rosberg “I really enjoyed myself today and the final result was a good outcome. Unfortunately I made a mistake at the first corner, expecting that Heidfeld might leave me more room and the incident put me right back. However, it was a super effort by the team and I really enjoyed fighting my way up, particularly battling with Coulthard. The final result - seventh place and the fastest lap of the race -is more than I could have hoped for in my first race. Today was a great start and I’m looking forward to the next race.
Simon Corbyn, Head of F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth “Today was a great start to the season with Williams. Neither of the Cosworth CA 2006 engines missed a beat throughout the race and the performance of the series two engines was very competitive and everyone at Cosworth deserves thanks for all their efforts over the winter.”
