Malaysian GP: Williams Friday practice notes

After a long test at the Sepang circuit last week, the AT&T Williams team focused on car set-up in today's two practice sessions, with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima running in P1 and recording the 5th and 8th quickest times respectively over the ...

After a long test at the Sepang circuit last week, the AT&T Williams team focused on car set-up in today's two practice sessions, with Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima running in P1 and recording the 5th and 8th quickest times respectively over the 90 minute morning session.

In hotter ambient conditions and on an improving track in the afternoon, Alex Wurz joined Nico in a set-up programme in order to emulate the competitiveness enjoyed during the test. Both drivers made progress, but consider that there is more to be found from the cars and will work hard tomorrow in the morning practice to optimise their car balance ahead of qualifying.

Nico Rosberg:

"We have found a couple of reasonable set-ups over the two sessions today, but it's hard to say where we really are at the moment. We will know a little bit more by tomorrow after the last free practice session."

Alex Wurz:

"I only drove in the afternoon today and the car felt very different from how it was in last week's test, so we had to do a lot of work in the session to find the performance we had last week. We are still not completely satisfied, but we have practice tomorrow to improve upon where we are."

Kazuki Nakajima:

"I was happy with my performance this morning except for the mistake I made when I had a spin. Thanks to the team for recovering the car so we could get some extra laps in before the end. Initially we struggled with car balance, but we improved during practice and I think we will take some more steps going into P2 & P3."

"I have been here once before in a GT car, but I really enjoyed this circuit today -- it is a challenge, some really attacking sections and then some more tricky stuff, but very enjoyable."

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

"This morning we had a software problem on Kazuki's car that meant he was unable to select first gear after his spin, but this will be fixed for tomorrow. Otherwise it was a productive day running through different set-ups for the race, but having tested here last week, a lot of the work on cooling and brake wear and normal systems work has already been done.

Nico Rosberg
Chassis/engine: FW29 - 01 /H081
Practice session 1: 1:36.308, 5th, 21 Laps
Practice session 2: 1:36.523, 5th, 31 laps

Alex Wurz
Chassis/engine: FW29 - 04/H080
Practice session 2: 1:36.621, 6th, 21 laps

Kazuki Nakajima
Chassis/engine: FW29 - 03/H082
Practice session 1: 1:36.885, 8th, 15 laps