Aided by the forecasted rain, Melbourne’s Albert Park delivered a thrilling afternoon of racing today. Starting on the fourth row of the grid, Rubens Barrichello again scored points for the team in his second race for AT&T Williams, finishing in eighth place. Nico Hulkenberg’s debut Australian Grand Prix ended before it began as he fell victim to Kobayashi’s turn six incident on the first lap. The team now pack up and travel straight to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Grand Prix next Sunday.
Rubens Barrichello:
It was a good race, but we should have finished in seventh really. We took the chance to change tyres when we did and go for it. I thought everyone else would also come in, which is why I went for that route. More points for the team today is positive though. The car is good enough; we will just be picking up more points before we get podiums.
Nico Hulkenberg:
Today was obviously pretty disappointing. I was already in the corner when I was suddenly hit from behind by Kamui Kobayashi. It was quite a big impact. I’m not sure what caused it, but it’s frustrating because I was looking forward to my first race here.
Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It was good to get some more points, but we need to bring more performance to the car and to the engine. Doing both is the major part of our development programme over the next few races. Rubens drove well through all the conditions he faced today. Unfortunately, Nico was knocked out of the race by another car.
Points: AT&T Williams 5 (7th), Rubens Barrichello 5 (11th), Nico Hulkenberg
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