27/05/2012
NEWS STORY
It was a bitter-sweet day for the Williams F1 Team, with Bruno Senna finishing in the points after a measured drive in the Monaco Grand Prix. Bruno made a good start from 13th on the grid, avoiding the first lap incidents and posting some competitive times to bring his Williams-Renault home in 10th position.
After starting on the back row of the grid following two penalties, Pastor Maldonado ended a troubled weekend by retiring on lap one. While trying to avoid first lap collisions, Pastor picked up damage to the front of his car with part of the front wing being lodged underneath leaving him unable to turn into the hairpin where he hit the barrier.
Bruno Senna: I'm happy we got a point from a very tough race. We deserved more and I felt we could be stronger than this, but today it didn't happen and so we did the best we could do. It's good to be in the top 10 but I have bitter-sweet feelings. Now we are fired up for Canada and I'm really looking forward to that race. I have a lot of confidence that we are getting there with the set-up of the car, so I can't wait to get going again.
Pastor Maldonado: It was a difficult weekend from my side. I am disappointed because I was expecting something more from the race. We had a great strategy, but after a good start I was in the middle of the track, and got a bit unlucky caught up in cars fighting ahead. I locked up and couldn't stop the car on the dirty side of the track at turn six. The weekend was compromised after we received the penalties yesterday so we are now looking forward to the next race. We have a competitive car and it will be completely different in Canada, it's a different track and a different situation.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Whilst we are pleased to get a point today with Bruno we are equally frustrated as the car and drivers had much more pace than those immediately in front of them. Unfortunately Pastor's race ended on the first lap as he hit Pedro de la Rosa who was in turn braking hard due to the Grosjean incident ahead. Bruno drove a very good race pushing Raikkonen hard all the way to the end, but could simply not get past despite trying hard. We will now regroup for Canada and hope to do a better job in Montreal.
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: Monaco is a challenging track for engine engineers as it's unlike any other circuit on the calendar due to the high number of low speed corners. But this weekend has been difficult overall. Starting so far back means it is hard to make up positions so one point for Bruno is a reasonable result. We're looking forward to Montreal for a better outcome.
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