Assessment: Williams is satisfied
Nico Rosberg is once again in the top 5 at the finish of a race. This hadn’t happened to him this season since the European Grand Prix in Valencia in August. This was Williams’ goal, and it has been fully achieved. However, it was not a foregone conclusion. He only set the 9th fastest lap […]
Nico Rosberg is once again in the top 5 at the finish of a race. This hadn’t happened to him this season since the European Grand Prix in Valencia in August. This was Williams’ goal, and it has been fully achieved. However, it was not a foregone conclusion. He only set the 9th fastest lap of the race with a 1:33.595 and spent a long time outside the points zone. The pits were fatal for him in Singapore, but here in Suzuka, it was the opposite.
Nico Rosberg benefited from the deployment of the safety car on the 46th lap triggered by Jaime Alguersuari’s crash at the corner named 130R. He immediately took advantage of this to refuel, make up some of his deficit, and rejoin the race in fifth position. He then managed to maintain this position until the finish. His teammate, Kazuki Nakajima, had an anonymous race in the depths of the pack. His best lap was 1.34:783, which was 1.2 seconds slower than his teammate’s. On this very technical circuit, Nakajima displayed his driving shortcomings compared to Nico Rosberg and has likely lost his spot at Williams permanently. In the constructor championship, Williams retains 6th position, giving them some breathing room over Renault and BMW-Sauber, but they are losing ground to Toyota, which is now out of reach with a 20-point lead over Williams.
Nico Rosberg – 5th:
« This is the best I could get today. The car wasn’t as fast as we wanted, but we made the most of the situation. I really had a very good strategy which helped with the result. But it was a difficult race and in the end, I am satisfied. »
Kazuki Nakajima – 15th:
It was a difficult race for me. I was on a one-stop strategy that worked up to a point, but I just encountered too much traffic throughout the race and then the safety car came out, so it didn’t work out the way we hoped. It’s a disappointing result for my home Grand Prix.
Sam Michael – Technical Director:
« We had an interesting race because our strategies were quite different from the cars around us due to the penalties imposed yesterday. Nico [Rosberg] kept his head down and scored the points we were hoping for today. He was competitive when needed, and it’s a good result. Kazuki [Nakajima] was on a one-stop strategy, which relied on a lot of events today that did not help him. »
