30/07/2006
NEWS STORY
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "We have made some clear progress in terms of our pace, although today's reliability was very disappointing. Mark had a great drive today and we knew our tyre would be much better in race conditions than in qualifying, but we suffered a failure of a water pipe between the engine and the water cooler, so we gradually lost water. After Mark's second pitstop, we started to see the problem, which hurt our ability to keep Raikkonen behind us, but the worst finishing position Mark would have had today was fifth. Unfortunately Nico was out on the first lap."
Mark Webber: "It was a promising race but a disappointing ending. I had a really good start and climbed from 11th to sixth after lap one and the stint went well. I had a big fight with Rubens who got me in the end, but I knew he was lighter and had to stop before me. After the first pitstop I passed Fisichella on the track and was on the limit until the second stop. After that, things started to go wrong - I lost a bit of balance on the car and then suddenly started to lose engine power quickly. It seems we had a water leak, which of course is terminal for an engine and it was all over eight laps from the end."
Nico Rosberg: "It was very disappointing not to fully participate in the race because it looked like a lot of fun to be racing here today in front of a home crowd. The car has been good for most of the weekend and I wanted to move up the field as quickly as possible. I lost the rear in the Motodrome but didn't really feel it coming - I probably overdid it because I wanted to get too much out of the first lap. Mark had a great race today and deserved to get some strong points for his performance, but if nothing else, at least we are turning the corner with our pace. I will put today behind me quickly as we will be racing in Hungary next weekend."
Chris Jilbert, Principal Engineer, F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth: "It's very disappointing to have to retire from the race when Mark was running so strongly. The engine has continued to work perfectly all weekend, and we increased the duty to help hold position. Unfortunately, the water supply hose to the engine appears to have been damaged resulting in significant water loss. We risked carrying on as far as we could, but in the end the engine just got too hot, and the car was forced to retire."
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