AT&T Williams brought both FW30s home in today’s Japanese Grand Prix but were unable to add any points to the team’s Constructors’ total. Nico Rosberg lost position atthe start, but a one stop strategy, combined with some assertive overtaking manoeuvres, elevated him to P11. Kazuki Nakajima suffered a disappointing Formula One debut in front of his home crowd. Caught up in a first corner incident, a subsequent unscheduled stop relegated him to the back of the field from where he was unable to recover position putting him in fifteenth place at the end of the race.
Nico Rosberg:
Our start was poor due to a technical problem so I just fell to the back of the pack. I was also quite heavy with fuel. I’m satisfied with my performance and it was actually good fun out there today. I was able to overtake in the first part of the race and to drive one qualifying lap after another the whole way through. I gave it 100% and was as quick as Heidfeld, who was on the same strategy. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to score any points, though. I’m flying to Shanghai tomorrow and looking forward to collecting some points there.
Kazuki Nakajima:
That was a shame. It was very disappointing to have an accident in the first corner, but I couldn’t do anything about it. After the incident, I just tried to do my best for the rest of the race. I don’t think our race pace was that great, though, so I couldn’t make any progress. We need to go away and work on our performance to see where we can improve for the next time.
Sam Michael, Technical Director:
We had poor starts on both cars. Kazuki then lost his front wing on the first lap and that put him at the back of the pack after an unscheduled stop. From that point on, it was difficult to make any progress with Kazuki. Nico was fuelled long and was the heaviest out there but he lost a lot of time behind slower cars on their first stints in the opening stages. His pace was respectable though so a better start would have left him fighting for the top of the one stopper positions. Our starts were great at the beginning of the season, but now they are poor. It is something that the engineers will put a lot of effort into resolving before the final two Grands Prix.
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