Turkish GP Race

Posted on Sunday 07 Jun 2009 and tagged with turkey, istanbul.

The AT&T Williams team today enjoyed their best finish of the season to date with Nico Rosberg’s fifth place at the Turkish Grand Prix. Both drivers made strong starts, Kazuki gaining two positions off the line promoting him to P10, while Nico progressed from ninth on the grid to P5 by the end of lap one, the position in which he ended the race. Running in P7 ahead of his second and final stop, the potential for a season first points-paying place for Kazuki was removed by a sticky wheel nut. The extended pitstop put him back out in 12th where he concluded the race. Nico’s four points promotes the team to sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Nico Rosberg:
I am happy with fifth place and happy for the team as well because this is a good result. I had a great start, which I have to thank my engineers for as it went exactly as I’d hoped it would, and by the end of the first lap I’d managed to make up four positions. From there, I pushed hard to get past Trulli, and I thought I could because my pace was good, but he had a quicker car today. I hope we can keep up this momentum and score points at every race. At the moment, I would say we can consistently be in the top eight.

Kazuki Nakajima:
I had a good start and a strong first lap. Everything was then going well until the second stop. What happened was a real shame as I think that was probably the best race of my career so far.  Base-wise, we were competitive today, so thanks to the team for a good car and a solid strategy which allowed me to beat Raikkonen and Alonso on the track. We will just have to learn from the mistake in the pitstop and hope for a better result next time.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It was good to score four points. Nico had a fantastic start and drove a strong race to fifth. It was a shame that we had the problem during the pitstop on Kazuki’s car when the front left wheel nut became stuck. If not for that, he would have finished in a well deserved seventh place. To come away with four points though is a good day for the team.