AUSTRALIA GRAND PRIX – RACE
SUNDAY 16 MARCH, 2008
A podium for Nico Rosberg and a sixth place finish for team-mate
Kazuki Nakajima saw the AT&T Williams team off to a double
points start to their 2008 campaign. In an incident-filled
race with three safety car periods and only seven cars making
it home, Rosberg drove a clean, fast and confident race at
the head of the field to his first Formula One podium finish
in third place. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajma demonstrated calm
and maturity to fight his way to some additional points despite
being in the thick of the action further down the field. The
team heads to Malaysia for next weekend’s race in second
place in the Championship standings with nine points. Unfortunately
Kazuki will take a ten place penalty on the grid for the next
GP for an incident during the last safety car period.
Nico Rosberg:
I am really, really happy and I have to say that being on
the podium in Formula One is a really great feeling. It’s
been a while since I have been here and its great for the
whole team as they have been working hard over the winter,
they have done a good job and made some real progress. I gave
everything I had today, but it was a tough race on a street
circuit in the heat which didn’t make it easy. The team
deserves my thanks for this great result and it really encourages
me to feel that I can grow with Williams. I also want to thank
my father for everything he has done to help me to get to
this position. We have a solid race car and some good developments
coming, but we don’t want to get too excited because
it’s early days yet.
Kazuki Nakajima:
To get to the end today was great, great to finish and great
to get some points. It was really tough out there today physically,
but on top of that there was so much going on. At the start,
a car spun in front of me, turned side on and damaged my nose.
Then with the various safety car periods, the team did a great
job to swap my strategy to a one stop that put me in the points.
Towards the end of the race, I had another incident when all
the cars backed up into each other and I damaged my nose again.
But it was good to be able to demonstrate my physical fitness
and my consistency and I’m looking forward to Sepang
which is a circuit I know better.
Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It’s a fantastic start to the season, we knew we had
the potential in the car but didn’t realise it because
of the reliability problems we had in practice, but that all
came out in the race. Nico kept his head down through lots
of difficult situations, he had good strong car pace throughout
the race and congratulations to him for his first podium.
Kazuki did well too despite being involved in two incidents.
Both cars had solid reliability throughout the race and it’s
great to go away with a haul of points from the first Grand
Prix. After tonight we will look forward to Malaysia for better
qualifying and build on our second place in the championship.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
58 LAPS / 307.574kms / 191.117 miles
WEATHER Sunny
Air 36-380C, Track 46-510C
POS DRIVER TEAM Time / Gap (Fastest Lap) Grid
1 L Hamilton McLaren 1:34:50.616 (1:27.452, 2nd) 1
2 N Heidfeld BMW Sauber +5.478 (1:27.739, 3rd) 5
3 N ROSBERG FW30-03 H271 T&T WILLIAMS +8.163 (1:28.090,
5th) 7
6 K NAKAJIMA FW30-04 H270 AT&T WILLIAMS +1 Lap (1:29.639,
14th) 13
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