Pastor Maldonado - Photo Credit: Williams F1 Team
Pastor Maldonado is optimistic about the Williams team's chances in this weekend's Australian Grand Prix after going eighth fastest on Friday. The Venezuelan's best time was set in the relatively dry conditions of FP1 before concentrating on higher fuel runs in FP2 and he was ultimately happy with the progress made.
“We completed the majority of our programme and did a longer run this afternoon. The car is performing well and we're going in the right direction, but tomorrow we will see when we finally get into qualifying.”
Teammate Bruno Senna was much more cautious after ending the day in 14th overall. The Brazilian admits he is still getting to grips with the FW34 and is refusing to make any bold predictions for qualifying.
“The conditions today cut our running a little, but it was the same for everybody. This afternoon we completed some simulations to gain a greater understanding of what the car is doing and we are still learning. In terms of pace, we will see what we can achieve tomorrow afternoon.”
Chief Operations Engineer Mark Gillan was satisfied with the work completed on Friday is looking forward to seeing what the car can really do now that the rain appears to have passed for the weekend.
“The weather dominated both sessions, with each session being declared wet and thereby limiting the base programme. Both the drivers and the team performed well and we completed the day’s running without issue. Despite the conditions, we learned quite a lot today, and look forward to what should be dry running throughout the rest of the weekend.”
