Spain: the race seen from the pits

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – Winner

Translate: Bruno Senna – Abandon

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: « What can I say? It’s a huge result for the team and sensational driving from Pastor. The whole race went well from start to finish with each team member playing a vital role in this victory. We will take a little time to savor the victory and then focus again on our efforts to continue improving the car for the rest of the season. Obviously, it’s disappointing that Bruno was caught by Michael [Schumacher] but Bruno is eager to get back in the car in Monaco. »

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 2nd

Felipe Massa – 15th

Stefano Domenicali, Team Director: « We arrived in Spain with the dual objective of making progress in terms of performance and, for Fernando, staying in touch with the leaders in the standings: this afternoon, we can say that we have achieved both objectives. It’s a shame for Felipe who was plagued by bad luck all weekend: yesterday there was traffic in qualifying and today a penalty probably prevented him from finishing in the points despite gaining many positions at the start.

Once again, Fernando delivered an extraordinary race, fighting for the victory from the first to the last lap. There were some unfortunate incidents, like the overtaking of Pic, but we have to admit that towards the end of the last stint, there was no more margin to attack Maldonado. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Pastor on his first Formula One victory and Williams for finding their way back to victory after seven years.

Tomorrow, we will think about the development of our car because we are not yet fast enough to consistently fight for the podium, which is the only option if we want to be in the title fight. The championship is incredibly balanced, as shown by the fact that there have been 5 different teams winning as many Grand Prix. Despite all the difficulties we experienced at the beginning of the season, Fernando is leading the standings tied with the reigning champion: this must be a motivation for everyone working for us at the factory or on the track. We expect Felipe to bounce back after this unlucky weekend, starting in Monaco: we absolutely need his points to also fight for the constructors’ championship.

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Lotus

Kimi Räikkönen – 3rd

Romain Grosjean – 4th and fastest lap, the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi (Monaco 1996)

Eric Boullier, Team Director: « It’s an excellent result and a great reward for the team today. I think we can look forward to a better season than last year and we need to keep scoring points like we have in the last two races. I am convinced that a victory will come during the season. After qualifying, you have high expectations, and after the good pace we had in Bahrain, you can expect the same, but it was not the case. A rare incident at the start didn’t help Romain, but the pace of our two drivers at the end of the race showed our potential. I would like to congratulate the Williams team on their victory and we hope no one was injured in the fire at their garage after the race. »

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Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi – 5th

Sergio Pérez – Retired

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: Firstly, congratulations to Pastor Maldonado for his fantastic race and victory. Regarding our own team, I have mixed feelings, as Sergio couldn’t take advantage of his good starting position. Kamui drove a magnificent race. He lost a bit of time in traffic but then he was able to overtake Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg with two great moves. He scored 10 important points. But his race also showed that the car’s development is working as planned, even on such a challenging circuit. This makes me optimistic for the upcoming races. A big thank you to the entire team and everyone at the factory for making this possible.

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Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 6th

Translate: Mark Webber – 11th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It has been a complicated afternoon. Unfortunately, Sebastian received a penalty for an incident under a yellow flag, which I believe was due to the fact that he had the DRS open. We also had damage on the front wings of both our cars, and they had to be changed. Despite that, Sebastian made a great comeback to finish 6th, overtaking both McLarens and Rosberg towards the end of the race, and as a result, we are still leading the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. For Mark, it was a difficult race with a wing change quite early on and unfortunately a severe lack of pace, which forced him to spend most of the race behind Nico Hülkenberg’s car. So, there’s a lot to understand; there have been five races and five different winners from five different teams. Congratulations to Pastor Maldonado, but especially to Sir Frank and the Williams team for their well-deserved victory today.»

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Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – 7th

Michael Schumacher – Abandon

Bob Bell, Technical Director: « We spent our afternoon fighting with Red Bull and McLaren – but it was only for places in the middle of the top 10 today. We didn’t have sufficient pace this afternoon, and we had an issue with Nico’s car. There was clearly a loss of downforce visible in the data, which made tire management even more difficult for Nico, but whether this was related to damage on the car or something else, we will have to investigate tonight. Obviously, it is disappointing to have lost Michael so early in the race, after his pace was quite good in the first stint. The team did a good job during the stops and I think we made the right tactical decisions to protect Nico’s position in difficult moments, even if he didn’t have grip left at the end of the race after a long final stint. The fact is we needed to have better pace today, and that’s what we will have to do for the next races. And we will do it. »

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McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – 8th

Jenson Button – 9th

Martin Whitmarsh, Team Director: « Before saying anything else, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to Williams, Pastor [Maldonado] and especially to Sir Frank [Williams] for this resounding victory here today.

Regarding our team, after yesterday’s disappointment, today was about setting things right. Nevertheless, Jenson will be disappointed: he encountered balance and grip issues all afternoon and will not be satisfied with the few points that ninth place allows him to take.

Lewis, starting from the very back after his disqualification yesterday, delivered an absolutely dazzling race to finish eighth at the checkered flag, very close to overtaking Nico [Rosberg] for seventh place on the last lap. Like Jenson, he won’t be satisfied with the four points he earned today, but in reality, he has every reason to be immensely proud of his performance here. Make no mistake, the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix was one of the most impressive races Lewis has ever run. His performance combined fabulous flair with remarkable caution, and I would go as far as to say that after the growing frustration he experienced yesterday, he has been an inspiration to each of us at McLaren.

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 10th

Paul di Resta – 14th

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal: Another very tough and competitive Grand Prix, so we are happy to have scored a point with Nico. It’s a hard-earned point with an optimal strategy and brilliant driving, especially in Nico’s defense against Mark Webber towards the end of the race.

Paul was not far behind, but it was difficult for him to hold back the Toro Rossos because our race paces were quite similar and we had to settle for 14th place.

Looking back, over the entire weekend, we saw once again that the entire field remains incredibly competitive and that we must continue to push to optimize the developments we have brought to the car. We know there is more speed to come and we hope to prove it in the upcoming races.

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Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 12th

Daniel Ricciardo – 13th

Franz Tost, Team Principal: Jean-Eric got off to a good start, gaining a few places at the beginning, while Daniel lost one before returning to his starting position on the grid a few laps later. During the race, where they both executed a three-stop strategy, starting on the Softs before switching to Hards, then to Softs again, ending on Hards, they both showed good pace, fighting against each other at times. However, once again this weekend, our qualifying pace was our weak point, and as long as we don’t start better positioned on the grid, we will continue to struggle to score points. We have a lot of work to do before heading to the Monaco circuit, where overtaking is difficult, so a good grid position will be vital.

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Caterham

Heïkki Kovalainen – 16th

Vitaly Petrov – 17th

Mark Smith, Technical Director: I’m delighted with the performance of our two drivers today. They pushed throughout the race and ensured they made no mistakes, especially at the start. Our pace at the beginning of the race was good and we made good use of the tire strategy to stay in the middle of the pack, but then we had an issue with blue flags, we had to let the leaders through which increased the gap with the cars we were fighting with, but we have to deal with that on circuits like this where we knew we would be a lap down at some point. We now have a few busy weeks before the next race, with an aero test in the UK, which is part of the program that helps us close in on the midfield, and we will head to Monaco, hoping to repeat last year’s performance where we finished 13th and 14th.

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Marussia

Timo Glock – 18th

Charles Pic – Abandon

John Booth, Team Director: « It’s obviously very disappointing that we were unable to get both cars to the finish today. We’ve suffered two transmission problems this weekend, one during the race, so we’re sorry for Charles having to retire after his efforts this weekend. With Timo’s car, we didn’t make the progress with the balance that we wanted and it prevented him from being as fast as he can be. There are times when we manage to solve the problems and we’re good, and times when we don’t get what we want from the car, like today. A disappointing result for us, but a brilliant victory for Pastor. Our congratulations to the Williams team. Busy weeks ahead for us, but we are looking forward to the next race in Monaco. »

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HRT

Pedro de la Rosa – 19th

Narain Karthikeyan – Abandon

Luis Pérez-Sala, Team Director: Once again, we demonstrated good reliability which allowed Pedro to finish the Spanish Grand Prix in front of his home crowd. It was truly a difficult race with the tires degrading significantly, which is why we opted for a four-stop strategy. But despite the fact that we have a lot to improve, we are satisfied with Pedro’s result, which is the best result we have achieved so far this season. It’s a very special Grand Prix, and for this reason, we would have liked to finish the race with both our cars, but unfortunately, it wasn’t possible due to an issue during Narain’s tire change. Such things happen when you work at the limit, in every team, and even more so when you are still in the learning phase as we are. But in this case, after a difficult weekend, it leaves me with a particularly bitter taste.

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Best race laps