GRAND PRIX - RACE
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.
FUJI SPEEDWAY, JAPAN
67 Laps: 305.416KMS, 189.975 MILES
Heavy cloud and continuous rain
Air 17-180C, Track 21-230C
POS DRIVER TEAM Time / Gap (Fastest Lap) Grid
1 L HAMILTON McLAREN 2:00:34.579 (1:28.193, 1st) 1
2 H KOVALANIEN RENAULT +8.377 (1:29.655, 9th) 11
3 K RAIKKONEN FERRARI +9.478 (1:29.619, 8th) 3
DNF N ROSBERG FW29-05 H193 AT&T WILLIAMS (1:29.926, 10th)
16
DNF A WURZ FW29-03 H185 AT&T WILLIAMS (2:05.636, 22nd)
18
Championship Positions: Rosberg 15pts, (9th), Wurz 13pts
(10th), AT&T Williams 28pts (4th) JAPANESE
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