23/03/2008
NEWS STORY
After a poor qualifying session on Saturday in Sepang, the AT&T Williams team was not able to score points in today's Malaysian Grand Prix as various events compromised the team's ability to follow their planned strategies. Nico Rosberg had to make an unscheduled stop after the race start following damage to his front wing and a problem with his fuel system meant a second alteration to his planned strategy. Kazuki Nakajima made a strong start from the back of the grid, claiming four places in the first sector and by lap three had climbed seven positions. He too, however, was unable to stick to plan following a puncture and an excursion off the track which prevented him from capitalising on his strong start. Nico finished the race in P14 and Kazuki in P17.
Nico Rosberg: I knew that starting from 16th I would have to take some risks to make the race worthwhile and in fact it went well off the line considering I was carrying a lot of fuel. But then I came together with Timo Glock. When he left a gap, I went for it and I got alongside him. I guess he didn't see me as he turned in and I couldn't back out, which was unfortunate. The car was better today in the race but despite trying everything I tried, it really wasn't our weekend. Now I am just looking forward to Bahrain where things should go better.
Kazuki Nakajima: From the back of the grid, we decided upon quite an aggressive strategy and I made up quite a few places from the start, but it was difficult to open up a comfortable gap. On the second stint, I had a puncture and had to stop very early, which was not ideal as I had to run two short stints and a long final one. I was struggling a little in the last stint and in a high speed corner I spun off, so after that I just wanted to concentrate on making it home to get two races on the engine.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: This was a race weekend to move on from. After a poor qualifying, we tried two different strategies on the cars, Nico on a one stop and Kazuki on a two stop. The plan didn't work out because Nico lost his front wing on the first lap and Kazuki had a puncture. We later had a problem with the fuel system on Nico's car, meaning we had to pit earlier than planned and run some extra fuel. Kazuki made good progress during the first stint and it looked like the strategy was working, but then he had a puncture in the second stint, so we had to pit him earlier than scheduled too. Kazuki then went off the road and flat spotted the tyres. We need to learn from all the mistakes we made this weekend, look forward to Bahrain and have a good recovery.