Belgian GP: Williams qualifying report

Spa delivered its usual mixed bag of weather to keep today’s qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix a lively challenge for drivers and engineers alike, but the AT&T Williams team performed well to place both cars in the top ten. A different tyre selection in Q3 with Nico Hulkenberg running on the option tyre and Rubens Barrichello on the prime, will dictate a split strategy for the cars in tomorrow’s race, with both drivers highly capable in the wet should conditions alter.

Rubens Barrichello:
Today was a good effort by everyone in the team. We were struggling a bit with set-up this morning, but the team came up with some great ideas after practice to get the car into better shape for qualifying and they paid off. I'm delighted to be up in seventh place. I'm having a great weekend celebrating my 300th race with my family and the team and I will be pushing hard tomorrow to get a good result.

Nico Hulkenberg:
It was not a bad outcome today for the team with two cars in the top ten. I am happy enough with my position, especially considering that my last run in Q3 to claim my grid slot was on a used set of options that clearly were past their best. Just like the session today, I expect the weather to be pretty mixed tomorrow and to be honest, I am relaxed about that - with the variability in conditions, it is important to take it as it comes, the only sure thing is to aim for a good points finish tomorrow.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
To get both cars in the top ten today was a good effort by the team. The rain could have proved troublesome, but the drivers and engineers managed the weather well throughout the entire session. We'll now move our focus onto strategy for the race tomorrow. It looks like conditions could be changeable yet again, which will certainly make it an interesting afternoon!

-source: williams