19/03/2006
NEWS STORY
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "It was a shame that we had two DNFs with the cars after a promising start. Both cars got off the line well until the first corner when Alonso went round the outside of both of them. Nico's engine failed early in the race, then we had a problem on Mark's car with the hydraulics - he developed a leak that we couldn't fix in the pitstop and the car stopped about a lap and a half later. It's a disappointing end to the weekend, but car performance-wise we could have been solidly into the points looking at everyone else's pace and we'll go to Melbourne with fixes to these problems with increased determination."
Mark Webber: "My start wasn't too bad, but Fernando's was phenomenal. He closed up really quickly from behind me and passed me. This was a shame because it prevented us from running at our own pace. The hydraulic problem came on as I was on the start-finish line. My engineers confirmed it was terminal, so we had to stop. I am off to Australia tonight and I am really looking forward to seeing my family that I haven't seen for a long time, so naturally I'm looking forward to my home race in a fortnight."
Nico Rosberg: "What happened today was a shame because I was going quite well, even if I had lost a couple of places at the start due to wheelspin and also at the first corner where I could have been maybe a bit more aggressive, but after my experience in Bahrain, I just wanted to be careful. Nevertheless, I still thought I could have a good race. But just a few seconds before my engine gave up, I felt there was something wrong with it. It's really unfortunate because I would have loved to finish the race, but that's the way it is and I can't change that. I'll now have a couple of days of holiday and look forward to the race in Australia."
Bernard Ferguson, Cosworth: "With it being the second race for the Cosworth CA2006 V8 engines in both cars, we knew it would be tough, especially in the hot conditions. Unfortunately Nico's engine expired on lap 7 due to an as yet undiagnosed problem. We need to get the failed engine back to our Northampton headquarters as quickly as possible so we can analyse the failure."