BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
The AT&T Williams team had a somewhat unsatisfactory
qualifying session for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
In only his first experience of Formula One’s knockout
qualifying format, Kazuki Nakajima was unable to progress
further than round one and will start the race from the tenth
row of the grid in P19. Nico Rosberg carried the team into
the final stage of qualifying for the ninth time this season
and will line up in tenth place for the final Grand Prix of
this year’s Championship.
Nico Rosberg: My engineers have done a good
job improving the car throughout the weekend, particularly
since this morning’s session, but I think we were still
quite lucky to get into Q3 today. I nailed the lap in Q2;
I couldn’t have got anything more out of the car. In
Q3, with more fuel on board, I had a small balance problem
and made a minor mistake too, which probably cost me a tenth
or two. I could perhaps have just beaten Coulthard if everything
had worked out perfectly, but you cannot always get the best
out of a lap. I think we have to be pleased with where we
are and just try to do our best tomorrow. We seem to be pretty
strong over long runs, so we should be in good shape for the
race.
Kazuki Nakajima: It was difficult today.
I don’t know why, but the car felt quite different in
qualifying compared to this morning’s practice session
and I couldn’t get it completely right. Combined with
a couple of mistakes, qualifying was disappointing. I will
now go and look at my data in comparison to Nico’s and
see where I can improve for the race tomorrow.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: Today’s
result wasn’t exactly what we’d hoped for. In
his debut outing, Kazuki was knocked out in the first round.
In Nico’s case, we thought we could get a couple more
positions out of Q3 but he didn’t have a perfect balance
and that prevented him from qualifying any higher. Tomorrow’s
race will be interesting and we’ll fight as hard as
we can.
INTERLAGOS, BRAZIL
4.309 KMS / 2.677 MILES
CLEAR AND SUNNY
AIR 320C, TRACK 540C
QUAL DRIVER TEAM Q1 Q2 Q3
1 F Massa Ferrari - - 1:12.303
2 L Hamilton McLaren - - 1:13.033
3 K Raikkonen McLaren - - 1:13.016
10 N Rosberg FW29-05 H210 AT&T WILLIAMS 1:13.707 (13th)
1:12.752 (7th) 1:13.477
19 K Nakajima FW29-03 H211 AT&T WILLIAMS 1: 14.417 -
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