Canadian GP: Williams qualifying report

The AT&T Williams team converted their consistent practice pace around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve into their best qualifying result of the 2008 season, with Nico Rosberg improving on his sixth-placed qualifying in Monaco by claiming P5 for ...

The AT&T Williams team converted their consistent practice pace around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve into their best qualifying result of the 2008 season, with Nico Rosberg improving on his sixth-placed qualifying in Monaco by claiming P5 for tomorrow's race start. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima was tantalising close to his career first graduation to Q3, but ultimately had to settle for twelfth place, matching his grid spot in Barcelona earlier this season. Although the race is traditionally unpredictable, both cars are in a good position to claim valuable Championship points tomorrow.

Nico Rosberg:

I am especially happy with my position in qualifying because it was very difficult, not just because the track has changed a lot from yesterday and even from this morning, but also because the surface was breaking up in various locations. The grip had dropped away, so the aim today was not to make a mistake as it would be heavily punished by simply going 5 or 10cm off line. Anyway, I managed to keep everything completely under control and avoid getting offline, and the reward was 5th, which is a great place to start tomorrow.

Kazuki Nakajima:

It was a bit of a shame today because I missed Q3 by a very small amount and I really had the feeling that I could do it here, but it got harder to set good times as qualifying progressed. But I think it will be an eventful race tomorrow, possibly with safety car periods, so I plan to keep a level head like in Monaco and if that happens, I will have a good chance to score some points

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

It was a good qualifying from Nico today and that should be positive for the race tomorrow with a solid strategy behind him -- just another tenth, however, and he would have been third. Kazuki equalled his best qualifying performance and just missed out on making it into the top ten by half a tenth. However, he has a free choice on strategy now. The cars have performed reliably and have looked reasonably good round here all weekend, so we are looking forward to a good race tomorrow