Williams managed to get both cars through to Q3 in qualifying today at Hockenheim, and will start the German Grand Prix from eighth and tenth, with Rubens Barrichello out-qualifying Nico Hulkenberg.
“It was a good day all told,” said Barrichello, after claiming his joint second-best qualifying result of the season. “In Q2, I set my best time and it was a fantastic lap, and in Q3 for some reason I developed a bit of understeer and lost some balance. So it was a bit of a shame not to be able to repeat the performance as I thought we were capable of P7.
“That said, we have to be happy with two cars in the top ten and it gives us confidence for good points tomorrow.”
Hulkenberg actually dumped Michael Schumacher out of qualifying at the end of Q2, but the young German feels that he should have been closer to the pace of Barrichello in the pole-position shoot-out.
“It was positive to get both cars into the top ten; I think there was a bit more there time-wise at around about Rubens' pace, but I didn't have the greatest run right at the end of Q3,” he said. “All that said, we have a good platform for a strong race tomorrow.”
Sam Michael, the Williams technical director, agrees that there was a little more speed in the car, but in now looking ahead to the race, and hoping for points from both his drivers.
“Today was another good qualifying performance by the team and it is great to have both cars in the top 10,” he said. “We believed we could get up to 7th, but we just missed a bit of time in the last sector relative to Q2. Looking to tomorrow’s race, our target is to put away more points with both cars. The weather here this weekend has made things interesting so far, but it’s still clear on the tyres and other items.
