Nothing but problems for Williams team at Fuji

In a lottery of a race that took place in challenging wet conditions, with two safety car periods, the AT&T Williams team had a disappointing race, losing both cars as two of ten retirements in a race that decimated the field.

Alex Wurz was the team’s first casualty when he was hit from behind in low visibility conditions on lap 19 immediately after the first safety car period. Nico Rosberg succumbed to an electronics problem later in the race which caused various control systems to fail and forced his retirement. The team wishes Alex, who became a father for the third time last night, their congratulations.

Nico Rosberg "It was a tough race today, probably the worst conditions I have ever raced in. I couldn’t see a thing, I was aquaplaning and had a couple of big moments which were really close – it was all I could do to keep the car on track. Eventually I had an electronic failure which caused a variety of problems, most significantly in the conditions, was the loss of traction control and consistent gearshift, which made the car impossible to drive through the right hand corners and I was forced to retire."

Alex Wurz "I was next to Felipe Massa and everything was fine when I was hit from behind. I guess whoever it was couldn’t see me, just like I couldn’t see anything else. Normally I am happy to drive in the wet, but it was really bad out there today. It was fine when you had no-one in front of you, but if you were following another car, you couldn’t see a thing. The only way I can describe is if you close your eyes and run through your house at high speed – then you have some idea of how it was."

Sam Michael, Technical Director "The weather threw up a lot of difficult conditions for the drivers, but none the less it’s disappointing to come away with no points. Alex was out quite early and Nico had the pace at various times during the race, but then in the last third of the race, we had a problem with an electrical sensor and we need go through the data to identify what failed. Encouragingly from analysing when others came in for their first pitstop, Nico’s qualifying pace yesterday showed strongly."