CHINESE GRAND PRIX - RACE
The AT&T Williams team had an eventful but ultimately
unrewarding Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai today, with varying
wet weather conditions unfortunately not assisting the team
with their race strategies. Alex finished the race in twelfth
position and Nico, after one unscheduled stop for a punctured
tyre, finished in 16th.
Alex Wurz:
I guess I was hoping for more rain today. The conditions
worked well for me at the beginning and I was the first one
to put on dry tyres, which initially worked well for the conditions,
so we thought we’d pulled a rabbit out of the hat, but
eventually we experienced a similar problem to yesterday with
tyre grip and we just dropped back in performance.
Nico Rosberg:
It didn’t quite work out for us today. I had a poor
start which dropped me back, but then it was working pretty
well for me in the wet and I passed several cars. In the next
stint, we had switched to dry tyres and we had the same problem
we experienced yesterday in qualifying with the tyres. On
lap 29, I got a left rear puncture at the end of the straight,
but I am not sure what caused it as I didn’t make contact
with anyone else. Obviously it cost me to come in for an extra
stop and that was the end of my race. I am now looking forward
to Brazil and to end this season with a good result.
Patrick Head, Director of Engineering:
Our grid position rather dictated our race, but the conditions
were difficult today and we might have been luckier. Nico
was certainly driving a very good race and overtaking cars
but he sustained a puncture which also damaged some bodywork.
As a consequence, he had to make an unscheduled stop without
which it was quite possible he would have been among the points.
As it was, we sent him out on the wrong tyres for the conditions
and that was that. Alex’s race was dictated by a poor
grid position. The race was disappointing for both the drivers
and the team. I must say congratulations to the Toro Rosso
drivers who I think both did a good job.
SHANGHAI, CHINA
56 LAPS / 305.066 kms / 189.568 miles
Cloud and intermittent rain
Air 17-180C, Track 21-230C
POS DRIVER TEAM Time / Gap (Fastest Lap) Grid
1 K RAIKKONEN FERRARI 1:37:58.395 (1:38.285, 3rd) 2
2 F ALONSO McLAREN +9.806 (1:37.991, 2nd) 4
3 F MASSA FERRARI +12.891 (1:37.454, 1st) 3
12
A WURZ
FW29-03 H185
AT&T WILLIAMS +1L (1:39.743, 12th) 19
16
N ROSBERG
FW29-05 H195
AT&T WILLIAMS +2L (1:39.233, 6th) 15
Championship Positions: Rosberg 15pts, (9th), Wurz 13pts
(11th), AT&T Williams 28pts (4th)
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