Turkish GP: Williams Saturday qualifying notes

The AT&T Williams team will take to the grid for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix in eighth and 16th place, with today's qualifying outcome, while a little less competitive than hoped, providing some margin for improvement tomorrow. With the cars approaching Sunday's race from different starting positions, the team has a wide range of strategy options which will be considered overnight.

Nico Rosberg:

"If you had asked me on Thursday about our likely qualifying performance, I might have told you I wasn't sure that we could be strong here. Today my view has changed and I am a bit disappointed I didn't claim P7 by a margin of one hundredth of a second, which, overall, is better than I anticipated."

"It was very close between me and Kovalainen right through Q2 & Q3. 7th would have been possible today, but we needed to get everything absolutely right. The first six cars ahead of us are on paper too fast to catch tomorrow, but 8th position is not bad and gives us a good chance in the race."

Alex Wurz:

"The first session went okay and the car felt fine, in the second session though I was fighting with the balance, which I tried to ignore, but on top of that, I made a few little mistakes which you can't afford when it is so close, so overall I am disappointed. We'll see what tomorrow brings."

Sam Michael, Technical Director:

"Nico did a good job in qualifying and it was a shame to miss out on 7th by a hundredth of a second. He has a good strategy for the race tomorrow and will be fighting hard for points. With Alex it was disappointing not to progress to Q3, but I am sure he will get his head down tomorrow and with a good strategy he will keep pushing all race. We had no mechanical problems today."

Nico Rosberg: 8th
Chassis/engine: FW29-05 H170
Time: 1:28.501

Alex Wurz: 16th
Chassis/engine: FW29-03 H151
Time: 1:28.390

-credit: williams