Saturday: both Williams in the top 10

Saturday’s qualifying was completely crazy as the session took place in challenging conditions and dragged on. The two Williams drivers had a field day in the first two parts of qualifying, and one could legitimately imagine that Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima might compete for pole position. However, the Williams duo will start at the bottom of the top 10.

Nico Rosberg demonstrated an Olympian calm today and dominated the first two parts of qualifying, even though they were spaced more than an hour apart. His teammate was not far behind and followed suit. Rosberg and Nakajima easily advanced to the final part of qualifying but were significantly less dominant. Nico Rosberg will start 7th and Kazuki Nakajima in 9th position.

Nico Rosberg – 1st and 7th:

« It was good to see that we were the fastest in the wet during qualifying. Unfortunately, I think we weren’t fast enough with the intermediate tires. We weren’t able to heat the tires to make them work properly, which ultimately hurt our pace. Seventh is a position from which we can hope for a good race tomorrow. »

Kazuki Nakajima – 2nd and 9th:

« It was a difficult qualifying session with quite a long delay between the red flags. It would probably have been better if it had continued to rain because the car was very competitive in the wet, but we still managed to secure a good position. This is the first time I’ve been in the top ten since Hungary, and I’m looking forward to having a good race tomorrow. »

Rob Nelson – Chief Operations Engineer

« It was a very busy and long qualifying session today due to the weather. Both drivers were happy with the car on a wet track, and we put them on intermediate tires at the right time during Q2. It’s nice to have both drivers in the top ten again, but I think we could have done a bit better. It will be an interesting race tomorrow, and we should score points.