Mixed feelings for Williams

Qualifying for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix ran smoothly for the AT&T Williams team at the Sakhir circuit. Nico Rosberg once again secured a place in Q3 and will start tomorrow’s race from 10th place on the grid. In one of the most fiercely contested qualifying sessions, team mate, Alex Wurz, narrowly missed out on a top ten slot.

Nico Rosberg "I’m happy with that because sometimes it’s not always easy to get into Q3. I would have liked to have been a bit higher up but from 10th on the grid everything is possible. Strategy-wise, we’re looking good for the race. I’m looking forward to it; our car is strong, we have a competitive race pace and I will hopefully score some points."

Alex Wurz "I missed out on Q3 by just a few thousandths of a second. It’s very tough competition out there, which is very nice as it’s so challenging, but it’s brutal. That’s motorsport at its best. We went out early to avoid the traffic so my lap was clean. A positive to starting in P11 is that I can now choose my fuel load and strategy. It’s going to be a tough one but I’m hoping for a good race pace, like we had in Malaysia."

Sam Michael, Technical Director "Slightly mixed feelings on qualifying. We almost managed to get both cars into the top ten, but Alex just missed out on Q3 by a quarter of a tenth. That’s just how close the field is now. We can make a good race from 10th and 11th on the grid and so we’re looking forward to challenging for points tomorrow. The long run pace of the FW29 has been good and we have good straight line speed as well. We’ll now work on strategy for Alex’s car."