Formula One news
Williams blames poor grid slots for pointless race
19 October 2008 / Results / PhotosWilliams team's race prospects in the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai today were tempered by a poor qualifying outcome on Saturday which gave the team limited opportunity to compete for a good finish. Given the qualifying result, the team deployed a one-stop strategy for Kazuki Nakajima and a two-stop strategy for Nico Rosberg to retain the widest degree of flexibility for differing race scenarios.
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Ultimately, the absence of any major weather or safety car events and the timing of pitstops meant that the one-stop option for Kazuki proved to be the more fruitful. He advanced from 17th on the grid to 12th at the finish, a position he strongly defended on the run to the flag. Nico Rosberg was less able to progress with his two stop programme and finished P15.
"I think it was a good race for me considering where I started," said Nakajima. "Initially it was very hard work managing the car on a heavy fuel load. I lost position off the line, but during the first stint I managed to develop a good race pace. The other significant part of the race for me was the last period when I had to work hard to keep quite a few cars behind me and defend my position, and I was pleased that I succeeded in this."
Nico Rosberg commented, "My race was not good today, but it wasn't for lack of trying. We ran a different strategy to Kazuki just to see if we could generate some advantage, but it didn't pay off and it wasn't a lot of fun driving at the back. It didn't really represent our capability as our pace was okay and we were the tenth fastest car. I made a few passes but it was quite difficult to overtake as our top gear was too short. From here we can look forward to Brazil which should be a bit better for us, and then after this season working with the team on a positive winter in order to move us forward for next year."
Engineering director Patrick Head added, "It was not a strong result today, but I thought Kazuki did a good job defending his position. As we qualified poorly, we had to do something a bit adventurous with our strategy, so we split our options on the cars, but unfortunately the two stop route we took with Nico didn't work. Having not attended a race for some time, I must say I am very impressed with the professionalism of the race team. The car is reliable, but the problem remains that on this type of circuit it is just not quick enough."
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