Rubens Barrichello failed to get through Q1 in Barcelona earlier today, while Williams were unable to reach their target of getting at least one car through to the pole position shoot-out.
Nico Hulkenberg qualified thirteenth for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix. “Personally, I'm happy with my qualifying laps,” said the German. “We are of course aiming higher than P13, but that is where our performance is at the moment. I went off in Q1 which caused some minor damage to the car but the mechanics fixed it really quickly, and thanks to everyone at the factory who worked so hard to get the updates out in time for my qualifying session.“
Rubens Barrichello failed to get past Q1 for the first time this season, going out of qualifying ahead of only the six drivers from the new teams. “Unfortunately, I didn't have a clear run during any of my outings; I just kept getting caught out by traffic. It's going to happen to everyone at some stage this season; it was obviously just my turn today. It's disappointing because I thought we had a shot at Q3 this afternoon. I was also carrying some car damage from stones thrown up by other cars which we will have to fix tonight.”
Williams Technical Director Sam Michael was understandably disappointed with the performance. “Overall, that wasn't a good qualifying performance for the team. Rubens failed to make it out of Q3 after issues with traffic, while we were unable to convert Nico's pace in Q1 to take him through Q2 and into the top ten. We’ll look at the data to understand why and work on further improvements.”
Photo Credit: Glenn Dunbar/LAT Photographic
