RBS race report
Hockenheim, Germany – 21/7/08
The RBS-backed AT&T Williams team failed to score points for only the third time this year in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
Hockenheim, Germany – 21/7/08
The RBS-backed AT&T Williams team failed to score points for only the third time this year in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
While Lewis Hamilton showed his world championships credentials with an impressive win, the 10th round proved to be a difficult race for the Oxfordshire-based squad. Nico Rosberg finished 10th, with team-mate Kazuki Nakajima 14th.
Nico had consistently been among the top 10 in free practice but missed out on a slot in Q3 by just 0.15sec. Kazuki lost track time on Friday with a misfire and blamed his failure to make it out of Q1 on too conservative an approach to sector three of the lap.
In contrast, it was a good day for Williams' rivals in an increasingly competitive midfield – particularly Renault's Nelson Piquet Jr, who finished second to Hamilton and ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa.
"Even though it's not great to go home without points, it was a good race," said Nico, who had a technical problem at the start, which cost him a place from his 13th starting slot. He dropped another position to David Coulthard on the next lap but fought hard throughout a tight race to finish 10th.
"I was able to push hard when I had a free track and the car felt good, but then the order was mixed up by the general confusion of the safety car pit stops. Still, I enjoyed it in front of the German fans and the atmosphere was amazing. We now have a few races ahead of us where I am sure we can do well and our performance will improve."
Nico must now look forward to the next race in Hungary, a high downforce track, which is likely to be much better suited to the characteristics of the Williams chassis.
For Kazuki, it was also a frustrating race. "It was difficult, with something happening in every stint," he explained. "First of all I lost time when I was stuck in traffic early on. It would also have helped if the safety car following Timo Glock's accident at half distance had stayed out a bit longer so I could have made my stop.
"Then, in the last stint, I picked up some debris under the car, which caused bad understeer and I lost a place. Eventually, whatever it was came free and the balance returned, but it was too late."
Nico Rosberg was happy to be racing in his home Grand Prix. "I was born 40 minutes away from the track," he said, "and my grandma, uncles and friends still live there in Wiesbaden, so I come here quite a lot anyway and it feels good. I started my racing career in Germany and have raced and won many times here. Hockenheim is a track that I really enjoy and it's a shame I couldn't salvage a point."
With the F1 season reaching its July midpoint, the inevitable driver rumours were starting to flow at Hockenheim. One suggestion was that if Kimi Raikkonen decided to hang up his crash helmet at the end of the year, Fernando Alonso could move to Ferrari, Heikki Kovalainen would go back to Renault and Nico Rosberg would join McLaren. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to comment on things like that at all," Rosberg said when quizzed.
Germany can boast 25 per cent of the current F1 grid, with Rosberg, Nick Heidfeld, Timo Glock, Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil.
