The Williams duo had widely contrasting experiences in qualifying for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix: Pastor Maldonado claimed his best grid position of his debut season with seventh place whilst Rubens Barrichello blamed traffic for ruining his flying laps in Q2, and will start down in P15.
“Our car is working well and we gave a good performance today,” said Maldonado. “It is Williams' home race so I'm happy for the team. I'm quite confident and really looking forward to tomorrow as I always enjoy racing at Silverstone. The circuit with its quick corners suits our car so let's see what happens.”
Barrichello fell foul of traffic on a fast drying track towards the end of Q2. Whilst everybody else was setting their fast times, the Brazilian says that he was being held up.
“I had traffic at the end of my first timed lap in Q2 which damaged my second timed lap as well,” explained Barrichello. “When a track like this is drying out you can lose everything so it's very unfortunate that happened. We need to see what the weather is going to do tomorrow but I think the car is a lot better than our qualifying position shows and the team have done a good job.”
Technical director Sam Michael implied that the good result for Maldonado was probably helped by all the new parts that Williams have brought to their home grand prix this weekend, and does not doubt that Barrichello will also have good pace on race day.
It was good to have one car in the top ten today,” he said. “We ran all the new parts on both cars – the exhaust, diffuser, front wing and suspension, which is always rewarding and gives the factory a clear direction for the forthcoming races. We’re running to the FIA’s 10% throttle requirement here which is something that will be reviewed again before Nürburgring.
“Seventh was a great result for Pastor in conditions that were more difficult than usual, and he’s now in a strong position for the start of the race. Rubens was on it as well, but track conditions didn’t go his way this afternoon.”
Our car is working well and we gave a good performance today. It is Williams' home race so I'm happy for the team. I'm quite confident and really looking forward to tomorrow as I always enjoy racing at Silverstone. The circuit with its quick corners suits our car so let's see what happens.