29/08/2009
NEWS STORY
Today's qualifying session at the Spa circuit ahead of tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix threw up an uncharacteristic front row, and, by extension, saw a number of favoured drivers knocked out in the earlier stages of the sessions. After an uncompetitive start to the weekend with the AT&T Williams team struggling to find pace, late overnight changes and a commanding session-best sector two in Q2 enabled Nico Rosberg to maintain a near-perfect top 10 qualifying record this season. In the fluctuating form up and down the field, Kazuki Nakajima was unable to repeat the performance of his team-mate and starts tomorrow's race on the ninth row of the grid.
Nico Rosberg: We have really struggled all weekend but we managed to get the best out of Q2 and finishing 10th was possibly the best we could achieve carrying quite a lot of fuel. We have a good strategy and therefore I think we can fight for some points tomorrow. It was a very strange qualifying session here today, I think maybe the way the teams are using their tyres is making quite a difference.
Kazuki Nakajima: We struggled here yesterday in practice, but Nico managed to either drive very well or find a set-up direction that I didn't. I hope I can learn something from the progress he made today and have a better time tomorrow in the race to make up for today's disappointment.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: We had a difficult day yesterday and we changed a lot of things overnight which definitely made the car better. It was an unbelievably tight qualifying session considering how long the lap is, which goes to show how much of a difference the rules have made. Nico did a fantastic job to get the car through to Q3 and from that point we adjusted our strategy to concentrate on Sunday. Congratulations to Force India for their first pole.