Abu Dhabi GP: Williams qualifying report

In today's final qualifying session of the 2010 season, Rubens Barrichello clinched another top ten grid position after a convincing drive on option tyres in Q3, putting him in P7 for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The option tyre worked less favourably for Nico Hulkenberg, meanwhile. Making the switch from the option after Q1 left him with understeer and subsequently unable to manage higher than P15.

Rubens Barrichello:
It was a great qualifying, especially considering where we were yesterday. On Friday we were struggling a little, but we have improved the car in every aspect and I am just delighted with the outcome today. Seventh is better than I expected and I hope we can maintain this tomorrow. Of course tomorrow is another day, but my engineers and I have good momentum together this weekend, so I am very positive.

Nico Hulkenberg:
To begin with, Rubens and I were quite evenly matched but I ended up in P15 while Rubens made it into the top ten. In Q1 everything was fine, with the prime tyre working well. We then selected the option for Q2 and everything changed. My car suddenly behaved very unexpectedly, I lost balance and grip and the car was just sliding around all over the place. It was very strange and we will be looking into it tonight. With a good start, we could gain some places and end up with a more positive result tomorrow.

Patrick Head, Director of Engineering:
It was a great qualifying from Rubens. Together with his engineer, he extracted the very best out of the car this afternoon and we'll be looking for good performance in the race. Nico had shown the potential needed to make it into Q3, but something caused understeer in the slow corners in his final set of tyres. Both drivers can run a good race tomorrow and our intention is to maintain position in the constructors' championship.

-source: williams