BRITISH GRAND PRIX – RACE
SUNDAY 6 JULY, 2008
Predictably extreme weather conditions promoted one of the
most eventful races of the season today at round nine of the
Championship, the British Grand Prix. Kazuki Nakajima drove
his FW30 through the challenging conditions to a points-paying
eighth place finish for AT&T Williams at the team’s
home Grand Prix. Despite starting from the pitlane and an
unscheduled stop for a new nose following an incident prompted
by the wet track, Nico Rosberg climbed his way through the
field to finish the race in P9, just outside the points.
Kazuki Nakajima:
It was good to score a point again, but it was a shame to
lose seventh place to Jarno (Trulli) on the last lap. His
tyres were in a better condition than mine, though, and he
was just a bit quicker than me in the final laps when the
track was drying out. It was enjoyable out there today, although
a little hard to control the car in the opening and closing
stages. The team made a really good decision to put me on
the extreme wets at just the right time and so I was able
to manage the car well in such wet conditions.
Nico Rosberg:
It was pretty difficult out there today. When the rain started,
there were just rivers of water everywhere which, on wets,
caused everyone to aquaplane all over the place. Circuit conditions
were continually changing as well which caused the water to
move around the track making it quite hard to tell where the
best line was. It wasn’t an easy race, but we definitely
had the strategy right and came in for the extreme wets at
precisely the right moment. After that, it was going well
until the incident with Timo (Glock). He was ten seconds a
lap slower than me but, running behind him, visibility was
zero in certain corners and the next thing that happened I
was in the back of him. A big disappointment. I am now looking
forward to Hockenheim. It’s my home Grand Prix and I
expect us to go better there because the track is more suited
to our car.
Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It was a mixed race for us, really. After a difficult first
part, the pitwall made some good calls on the tyres in the
changing weather conditions, which enabled us to progress
up the field in the middle of the race, certainly enough to
get both cars into the points. Unfortunately, we only managed
to get one car into the points, so at the end of a difficult
weekend, we will now look to the next race to a better job
than here.
Silverstone, UK
60 LAPS, 308.355 kms / 191.604 miles
Weather: Cold and intermittent, heavy rain
Air 16-180C, Track 15-230C
POS DRIVER TEAM Time / Gap (Fastest Lap) Grid
1 L Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:39:09.440 (1:32.817, 3rd)
4
2 N Heidfeld BMW Sauber +68.577 (1:32.719, 2nd) 5
3 R Barrichello Honda +82.273 (1:33.386, 11th) 16
8 K NAKAJIMA FW30-04 H338 AT&T WILLIAMS +1 lap (1:34.277,
14th) 15
9 N ROSBERG FW30-05 H339 AT&T WILLIAMS +1 lap (1:34.797,
16th) From pitlane
Championship Position: Rosberg 8pts, (11th), Nakajima 8pts
(12th), AT&T Williams 16pts (6th)
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