RBS race report
Montreal, Canada - 8/6/2008
The RBS-supported AT&T Williams team was disappointed to come away from the Canadian Grand Prix empty-handed – despite achieving its best qualifying positions of the 2008 season.
Montreal, Canada - 8/6/2008
The RBS-supported AT&T Williams team was disappointed to come away from the Canadian Grand Prix empty-handed – despite achieving its best qualifying positions of the 2008 season.
Nico Rosberg was involved in a pit lane collision and finished 10th, while Kazuki Nakajima failed to finish after a crash on lap 47.
Nico had qualified the first Williams an impressive fifth on the grid and made a great start, passing twice world champion Fernando Alonso's Renault into the first corner.
"It was great to begin with and things were going fantastically," said Nico. "I got Alonso into Turn 1 and I was getting away from him and not losing much time to [Kimi] Raikkonen's Ferrari in front of me.
"When the safety car came out, we took the opportunity to come in as soon as the pit lane opened and the accident in the pits was really unfortunate. Lewis Hamilton was unable to stop when Raikkonen and Robert Kubica had to stop at the pit exit for a red light, and I went into the back of Lewis. I had to pit again for a new nose and then I also suffered a puncture."
Kazuki went out of the race when he hit the back of Jenson Button's Honda. "With all the other incidents in the field it was going quite well," he said, "but Jenson seemed to lose traction in the middle of the hairpin and I couldn't avoid him.
"I damaged my front wing and it was coming off, so I made my way into the pits. Just as I came in it detached itself completely, got wedged under the chassis and sent me straight into the wall."
AT&T Williams technical director Sam Michael said: "Obviously not a great result for us although we had good first laps and good strategy. It was difficult for Nico to recover from his pit lane accident and puncture, and Kazuki was a bit unfortunate.
"There were points there for the taking as the car was fast enough to be at the front of the midfield for the second successive race. We simply didn't capitalise."
Nico Rosberg's unfortunate accident in the Montreal pit lane will also have implications for the RBS-backed Williams squad at the forthcoming French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours. Post-race, the Canadian stewards penalised Nico and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton for causing a collision. Both drivers will contest the French event with a 10-place penalty on the starting grid.
Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of all in Saturday morning practice in Canada and went on to give the team its best qualifying result of 2008 when he put the FW30 fifth on the grid. Kazuki Nakajima showed the same kind of wet weather prowess as his father in Friday's morning's wet session and then equalled his best F1 start slot when he put the second car 12th, missing out on Q3 by just 0.04s.
The Canadian Grand Prix saw the first victory by a Polish driver when Robert Kubica also scored the first win for the BMW Sauber team. It was Kubica's 42nd Grand Prix for the team and in the years before BMW bought it (1993-2005) Sauber's best finish was third place, a feat it managed six times. The first ever win by a BMW engine was in the back of Nelson Piquet's Brabham, also in Canada, in 1982. The last win was in October 2004, powering Juan Pablo Montoya's Williams.
