Rosberg scores 2 points as Wurz has to retire
The AT&T Williams team had a positive points start to their 2007 campaign, with Nico Rosberg making up five places on his grid position to finish the race in seventh place, placing the team fifth in the Constructor’s Championship after the first race.
Nico also posted the fifth fastest time of the Grand Prix, indicative of a strong relative improvement in race pace from the end of last season. Alex Wurz’s race was prematurely curtailed when he was hit by David Coulthard eight laps from the finish, but the Austrian driver was unhurt in the incident.
Nico Rosberg "I wasn’t perhaps expecting today would turn out so well, but I started last year’s first race from 12th place and finished 7th, so I thought I could maybe do it again given my qualifying position. I have taken the best out of our car today and I was particularly happy that overtaking Ralf (Schumacher) was successful – I was taking a chance of course, but you’ve got to try it and it was good for the team. The new regulation requiring us to use both tyre types mixed it up a bit and although I did suffer some graining late in the race, it didn’t matter because I didn’t have anyone close in front or behind me. At the next test in Malaysia we have to improve to keep progressing."
Alex Wurz "After his second stop, I was aware that David (Coulthard) was close behind me on the track. Suddenly I felt an impact and the next thing I knew, I was his landing pad as the impact had sent him airborne over my car. It looked pretty spectacular, but I’m fine. It’s a shame my race ended the way it did, as soon as we got back to the paddock David came to apologise to me and he was a gentleman about the incident. Unfortunately though this doesn’t help AT&T Williams nor me, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Nico proved today that our race pace is good – I wasn’t able to show our speed so much, just because of the constant traffic I was among, but let’s look forward to a better race in Malaysia."
Sam Michael, Technical Director "We had a much better race than our qualifying performance yesterday, which is something we will look at for upcoming Grands Prix. Nico had a great race, did everything right and although he didn’t have many laps with a clear track, the ones he did he used properly. It’s a shame that Alex was taken out by Coulthard, but he is okay. It’s great to get our relationship with Toyota off to a good start by scoring points in the first race."
