Japanese GP: Williams qualifying rpeort

Postponed to Sunday following torrential downpours at Suzuka Circuit on Saturday, qualifying for this afternoon's Japanese Grand Prix finally got underway at 10:00 local time this morning. The AT&T Williams team delivered a competitive performance throughout the three qualifying sessions, making it through Q1 and Q2 with top ten times in both. Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg closed out Q3 with the eighth and ninth quickest times respectively.

Rubens Barrichello:
It was very nice out there today. It looked like we were quicker when the track was greener though! We were looking really fast and then the others found a little bit more time later on in the sessions. It was a good performance by the team and I'm happy with where we are.

Nico Hulkenberg:
It was certainly different to do qualifying on Sunday morning, but it was dry and this circuit is great to drive in the dry. We did a good job this morning, but my last run of Q3 was destroyed by Hamilton. I don't understand why he backed off into me because there wasn't a car in front of him. You need all the downforce you can get here so to be only a second behind the guy in front isn't going to help you get a good lap and it didn't help me today.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It was a good qualifying effort by both drivers to get into the top ten. It shows that the development parts are working well and we should have a strong race this afternoon.

-source: williams