MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX – RACE
After a poor qualifying session on Saturday in Sepang, the
AT&T Williams team was not able to score points in today’s
Malaysian Grand Prix as various events compromised the team’s
ability to follow their planned strategies. Nico Rosberg had
to make an unscheduled stop after the race start following
damage to his front wing and a problem with his fuel system
meant a second alteration to his planned strategy. Kazuki
Nakajima made a strong start from the back of the grid, claiming
four places in the first sector and by lap three had climbed
seven positions. He too, however, was unable to stick to plan
following a puncture and an excursion off the track which
prevented him from capitalising on his strong start. Nico
finished the race in P14 and Kazuki in P17.
Nico Rosberg:
I knew that starting from 16th I would have to take some
risks to make the race worthwhile and in fact it went well
off the line considering I was carrying a lot of fuel. But
then I came together with Timo Glock. When he left a gap,
I went for it and I got alongside him. I guess he didn’t
see me as he turned in and I couldn’t back out, which
was unfortunate. The car was better today in the race but
despite trying everything I tried, it really wasn’t
our weekend. Now I am just looking forward to Bahrain where
things should go better.
Kazuki Nakajima:
From the back of the grid, we decided upon quite an aggressive
strategy and I made up quite a few places from the start,
but it was difficult to open up a comfortable gap. On the
second stint, I had a puncture and had to stop very early,
which was not ideal as I had to run two short stints and a
long final one. I was struggling a little in the last stint
and in a high speed corner I spun off, so after that I just
wanted to concentrate on making it home to get two races on
the engine. Sam Michael, Technical Director:
This was a race weekend to move on from. After a poor qualifying,
we tried two different strategies on the cars, Nico on a one
stop and Kazuki on a two stop. The plan didn’t work
out because Nico lost his front wing on the first lap and
Kazuki had a puncture. We later had a problem with the fuel
system on Nico’s car, meaning we had to pit earlier
than planned and run some extra fuel. Kazuki made good progress
during the first stint and it looked like the strategy was
working, but then he had a puncture in the second stint, so
we had to pit him earlier than scheduled too. Kazuki then
went off the road and flat spotted the tyres. We need to learn
from all the mistakes we made this weekend, look forward to
Bahrain and have a good recovery.
SEPANG, MALAYSIA
56 LAPS, 310.408 km / 192.878 miles
WEATHER Sun & cloud
Air 30-310C, Track 38-460C
POS DRIVER TEAM Time / Gap (Fastest Lap) Grid
1 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:31:18.555 (1:35.405, 2nd) 2
2 R Kubica BMW Sauber +19.570 (1:35.921, 6th) 4
3 H Kovalainen McLaren +38.450 (1:35.922, 7th) 8
14 N ROSBERG FW30-03 H271 AT&T WILLIAMS +1 Lap (1:36.782,
13th) 16
17 K NAKAJIMA FW30-04 H270 AT&T WILLIAMS +2 Laps (1:37.711,
17th) 22
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