US GP: Williams Saturday qualifying notes

Today's qualifying for the United States Grand Prix delivered an unsatisfactory result with Alex Wurz knocked out in round one and team mate Nico Rosberg unable to make it into the top ten.

Missing out on a place in Q2 by just over one hundredths of a second, Alex will start tomorrow's race from 17th position with Nico slightly ahead in P14. In their favour, both drivers will be in the fortuitous position of electing their pit stop strategies.

Nico Rosberg:

"Today was more difficult than yesterday. I thought I could improve my times but I didn't. I glazed my brakes a little bit in traffic and when they cool down too much they don't work very well. After that, I could not hit the brakes as hard as I'd have liked to."

"There was something missing out there today, the package wasn't working as well as it should so I just couldn't get enough out of it. We now need to work out a good strategy to achieve something positive out of my starting position."

Alex Wurz:

"Today was not good. My first run was fine and the car felt ok, but the second wasn't great. I had a problem with the balance of the car which cost me about half a second in the first sector and that took me totally by surprise. I'm annoyed because I felt it was going to go well today, like I'd get into the top ten, so this is disappointing."

Rod Nelson, Chief Operations Engineer:

"Alex was looking reasonable after his first run in Q1. It looked like he was pushing a bit harder during his second run, but he went slightly wide and got some dirt on his tyres. That cost time and stopped him progressing through to Q2 which is obviously fairly disappointing."

"Nico was looking good but it didn't seem like he was able to improve on his time between Q1 and Q2. He was in the low 13s but it just wasn't quick enough with such tight competition out there. He seemed to experience some problems with the car during the lap so we'll have to look into that tonight."

Nico Rosberg
Chassis/engine: FW29-05 H146
14th, 1:13.060

Alex Wurz
Chassis/engine: FW29-04 H135
17th, 1:13.441

-credit: williams