Race report
Formula 1
Disappointing race day for Williams on Belgian GP
Published: Sep 2, 2012, 3:27 PM
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Bruno Senna finished 12th in today's Belgian GP as Pastor Maldonado's race came to an early conclusion on lap four. After making a good start Bruno drove a clean race, but had to make an unscheduled second pitstop with just five laps remaining due to a slow right-rear puncture.
Pastor Maldonado had a difficult opening few laps after being caught in a multi-car incident at La Source which brought out the safety car. Pastor pitted for fresh tyres and rejoined the back of the field, but on the restart made contact with Timo Glock, forcing him to stop out on track with damage.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Pastor's race was over very quickly following contact with Glock which forced him to retire.
Bruno Senna, Williams
Photo by: xpb.cc
Bruno had a very good start from 17th on the grid and pushed hard on a one-stop strategy, but unfortunately we didn't have the pace today to make this work.
A few laps before the end of the race we noticed Bruno's rear-right tyre pressure dropping due to a puncture. The puncture forced us to pit, with Bruno eventually finishing out of the points in 12th.
Bruno Senna: "We went for an aggressive strategy and it looked like the safety car was going to help us, but in the end the pace difference between the cars with newer tyres was too big.
We then had a slow puncture which meant we needed to pit again before the end. Overall it’s a day we want to move on from but we need to learn as many lessons as we can and make sure we’re in the best position possible for Monza to score some points for the team."
Pastor Maldonado: "I made a slight mistake at the start because the clutch slipped out of my hands before the red light switched off. We then got caught up in the first corner incident and that compromised our race. I’m disappointed because we could have scored some good points here, but it’s not long until the next race so we’re looking forward now."
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: Today was very disappointing considering Pastor’s starting position. Losing some points just at the end with Bruno was another tough pill to swallow, but we can take encouragement from the fact the car has shown signs of good pace this weekend, including setting the fastest lap of the race, which bodes well for Monza.
Source: Williams F1
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