Malaysian GP: Williams Saturday qualifying notes

Saturday's qualifying session for the AT&T Williams team at the Malaysian Grand Prix delivered a strong outcome for Nico Rosberg, who claimed 6th place on the grid for tomorrow's race. Alex Wurz by contrast was hampered by a technical problem which compromised his ability to progress into the later qualifying sessions and he will start tomorrow's GP from 20th on the grid.

Nico Rosberg:

"I don't think we couldn't have hoped for much better than P6 today. I am pretty pleased, especially because yesterday we seemed unable to find the form we had showed here at the test. However, since this morning, my car has been feeling better and everything started to go in the right direction."

"As the grip level rises, the car gets stronger, just like in Melbourne. Starting from 6th is a good position for tomorrow, even if the gap to those around me is tight. The most important ambition for us tomorrow is trying to maintain our consistency and continue gathering points."

Alex Wurz:

"Unfortunately in Q1 the car developed a problem before my final runs, so I was not able to set a time to get through to the following sessions. I couldn't select gears, but we are not sure yet why that is."

"It's a shame because this area of the car has been working faultlessly all the way through winter testing, on the dynos and into last week's test, but that's how it goes. Tomorrow I'll just have to see what happens and just make the best of it."

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

"Well done to Nico who did a good job with the car to qualify on the third row, he's obviously pretty good round here as he showed in his second Grand Prix last year, and he showed it again today. I am sure he can race strongly from where he is and we have a good strategy for tomorrow."

"Unfortunately, Alex's car got stuck in a gear during Q1 which meant he didn't get a proper run in and as a result, he's down in 20th. We'll check the car this afternoon and correct the problem for the race."

Nico Rosberg
Chassis/engine: FW29-03 H084
6th, 1:36.829

Alex Wurz
Chassis/engine: FW29-04 H086
20th, 1:37.326

-credit: williams