Williams failed to score a single point at the Belgian Grand Prix today, as a strategical error on behalf of the team meant that Bruno Senna finished a disappointed twelfth. Meanwhile, Pastor Maldonado came in for more criticism as he jumped the start, before contact with a Marussia ended his day early.
He had been lucky to survive the first corner crash, having been spun out. After the safety car pulled in however, his race didn’t last much longer.
“I made a slight mistake at the start because the clutch slipped out of my hands before the red light switched off. We then got caught up in the first corner incident and that compromised our race. I’m disappointed because we could have scored some good points here, but it’s not long until the next race so we’re looking forward now,” The Venezuelan, who has not scored points since his victory in Barcelona, said.
He also picked up another penalty. He will be penalised ten places on the grid for qualifying at Monza, with five places for the jump start, and five for the contact.
“We went for an aggressive strategy and it looked like the safety car was going to help us, but in the end the pace difference between the cars with newer tyres was too big. We then had a slow puncture which meant we needed to pit again before the end. Overall it’s a day we want to move on from but we need to learn as many lessons as we can and make sure we’re in the best position possible for Monza to score some points for the team,” Bruno Senna said.
“Pastor’s race was over very quickly following contact with Glock which forced him to retire. Bruno had a very good start from 17th on the grid and pushed hard on a one-stop strategy, but unfortunately we didn’t have the pace today to make this work. A few laps before the end of the race we noticed Bruno’s rear-right tyre pressure dropping due to a puncture. The puncture forced us to pit, with Bruno eventually finishing out of the points in 12th,” Mark Gillan, the team’s chief operations engineer added.
Following the race Maldonado was penalized for the two incidents, read the full story here.
