Spanish GP: Williams Saturday qualifying notes

The AT&T Williams team did not meet expectation today during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Despite feeling comfortable with his car's set-up, Alex Wurz's quick laps were consistently hampered by heavy traffic and so he will start from p18 on the grid. Nico Rosberg enjoyed a slightly more positive opening session and made it into Q2. Poor grip, however, restricted Nico's progression into the final round and leaves him in 11th position for tomorrow's race.

Nico Rosberg:

"To be in 11th place is not ideal but I had a lack of grip on the rear of the car and reached a certain point where I couldn't get anymore out of it. We just weren't going to get into the top ten today, but that's where we are. Strategy-wise, 11th is better than 10th, but of course it isn't where we want to be. It will be a long race, but hopefully I will have a good start and, from my grid position, it's still possible to get some points."

Alex Wurz:

"It was a bit of disaster, worse than a traffic jam on the M25 in London. People really slowed down on their in-laps and seemed to forget that other people were still around them doing quick laps. At the last chicane I actually nearly stopped because five cars were in front of me going so slowly which caused my tyre pressures to drop dramatically. I should have been able to get into Q2 today so, to end up in p18, is extremely frustrating. Barcelona is always hard to pass on, so it's going to be a difficult race for me."

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

"It's disappointing not to have at least one of the cars in the top ten, but that's where we are at the moment. It will obviously be pretty hard work for Alex to recover from 18th, but we'll look at our strategy tonight and find the best way to give him a good chance of getting up the field. Programme wise, everything went ok on Nico's car, and I think he managed to get the best that he could out of it. Plenty of work to do."

Nico Rosberg
Chassis/engine: FW29-05 H95
11th, 1:21.968

Alex Wurz
Chassis/engine: FW29-04 H96
18th, 1:22.769

-credit: williams