The two Williams drivers had a qualifying hour of contrasting fortunes at Abu Dhabi. Pastor Maldonado put in a strong performance and will start from fourth place for tomorrow’s race, with team mate Bruno Senna all the way back in fifteenth.
“It was a difficult session, especially in Q2 as we were on the limit in P10, but I saw the potential in the car. We then found a great balance in Q3 and I’m happy that we are back to looking strong again,” Pastor said afterwards.
“I think we showed throughout all the weekend that we are competitive and I did my best in qualifying. I’m really happy for the team, for myself and looking forward to the race tomorrow. Points are very important for us so I will be pushing to the maximum.”
Bruno Senna, unsurprisingly, was not as happy.
“I never want to be out of the top ten in qualifying but this weekend we have had a few problems, so that is how it is. Hopefully tomorrow the car will be quick in the race as we have a competitive car. We’ll work hard tomorrow and will still be trying to get into the points,” the Brazilian said.
“For sure it is a track with some overtaking opportunities with the DRS so hopefully we can make some use of that and use it to our advantage.”
“Pastor has been very strong all weekend showing good race pace on Friday. We worked hard on the qualifying balance throughout the weekend which ultimately paid off today with Pastor delivering an excellent fourth in Q3. Bruno has found it a bit more difficult this weekend,” Mark Gillan added.
“His first run in qualifying was hampered by a car problem that was quickly fixed prior to his second run but unfortunately he didn’t quite have the pace to transition into Q3, finishing 15th in what is a tight grid.”
