12/09/2010
NEWS STORY
The AT&T Williams team secured a valuable double-points finish in the Italian GP today. Nico Hulkenberg, capitalising on his a strong qualifying performance yesterday, led the team home in a tightly-fought race to P7. His team-mate, Rubens Barrichello, suffered from an early incident, dropping him back into slower traffic and with the field running long first stints, had to wait for an extended period to be released in the pitstops and recover ground. With only a third of race distance remaining, Rubens managed to secure the final points position by finishing in tenth.
Nico Hulkenberg: It was a tough day, but a rewarding one. I lost position off the start line, but managed to recover two places in the first chicane. From then on, I seemed to be fighting one or other of the Red Bulls for the whole afternoon, and there wasn't a moment when there was any let up in the pressure. It was made all the more difficult as I was struggling with the brake pedal, but it was an exciting afternoon of attacking and defending with great work in the pitstop, so I am pleased with the outcome.
Rubens Barrichello: I had a good start off the line and was alongside Nico, but coming into the first turn, I took the outside line and we all bunched up behind Vettel who had a bad start - it is so tight there - and I lost a part of my nose. But perhaps more significantly, I dropped behind Buemi who was running long, and that pretty much dictated my race, but I am glad that I added a point to our championship position.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: Nico had an excellent drive today and delivered throughout the weekend and the team is really happy with his performance. Rubens was stuck in traffic for most of the race which cost him dearly, but he did manage to score a point. We had no problems on either car today and it was good to see us running competitively with the front runners.
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