German GP: Williams qualifying report

Today's qualifying outcome has set the AT&T Williams team a tough challenge for tomorrow's German GP at Hockenheim. Nico Rosberg progressed to Q2 and will line up for tomorrow's race in P13, while Kazuki Nakajima just failed to make the cut in an extremely tight Q1 and consequently will start tomorrow in sixteenth place. In eighteen starts so far this year, the drivers have bettered their qualifying position on eleven occasions and there will be a clear ambition to achieve this in tomorrow's race and hunt for valuable points in the process.

Nico Rosberg:

It was all pretty close today and we had a good chance to make it into the top ten but it just didn't play out that way in the end. Nevertheless, I am still quite happy with the improvements in our car and we have taken a step forward. Out on track today it was a bit difficult, especially during my last runs because we had changeable conditions, with the wind intensity and direction constantly variable, which seemed to affect the car. Let's hope that tomorrow we can have a good race and score some points, which from P13 is a real possibility.

Kazuki Nakajima:

Unfortunately today I don't think I managed to get everything out of the car in the last lap, especially in sector three where I realised I was being too conservative. Because it was so tight at the end of Q1 today, it cost me quite badly, but with every lap, the feeling I have with the car is improving, so hopefully I will have a better race.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

We are where we expected to be after the pre-GP test and the practice sessions here. The grid is exceptionally close and being on the bottom end of that tight pack means it will be a difficult race. We had no mechanical issues with the cars today. We will turn our attention to the race and see what we might be able to get out of it with a good strategy tomorrow.

-credit: williams