Singapore - 28/9/2008
Nico Rosberg scored the best result of his F1 career when he finished a fighting second for the RBS-supported AT&T Williams team in Formula One's historic first ever night race in Singapore. Kazuki Nakajima supported him with eighth place as both FW30s scored points.
The event was adjudged a spectacular success as a dramatic 61-lap race included two Safety Car interventions and produced the first win for double world champion Fernando Alonso since his return to the Renault team.
Alonso, who had problems in qualifying and started 15th, made his first pit stop after just 12 of the race's 61 laps and benefited when a Safety Car two laps later allowed him to vault up the order.
The timing was a nightmare for Nico Rosberg who had no choice but to make his first fuel stop on lap 15, while the pit lane was still closed under Safety Car conditions. “I was really annoyed at first,” he admitted. “It has happened to us before this season and I thought, no, not again – impossible!”
The leaders all stopped when the pit lane opened two laps later and Nico led on the road between laps 18 and 28, but with the knowledge that a 10s stop/go penalty was inevitable. “I was doing qualifying lap after qualifying lap to try to build a gap to make the stop,” he added.
The final hurdle for Nico to clear was a second Safety Car for an accident to Adrian Sutil, which closed the field up with 10 laps remaining. It meant that Williams was right up there with race leader Alonso but also had to contend with Lewis Hamilton's McLaren just behind.
“It was going to be difficult for me to pass Fernando anyway because he was a little bit quicker than me and I was concentrating more on Lewis,” Nico admitted. “I really made sure I got a good exit out of the last corner. I was struggling a bit with tyre warm-up and my tyres had really cooled down a lot during the Safety Car period. It was really difficult afterwards and my main focus was staying second. I'm delighted that I managed it.”
The Williams team now aims to build on its most successful race of the season as F1 heads for the Japanese GP at Fuji.
As well as Nico Rosberg's fine second place, team technical director Sam Michael had strong praise for Kazuki Nakajima's fifth point-scoring drive of the season. “Whenever there is a difficult set of circumstances Kaz seems to come through for us,” Michael said. “At first you are tempted to think it could be luck but when you look at the statistics it has got to be more than a coincidence. He has done well in his rookie year.”
Williams' radio transmissions revealed the team telling Nico Rosberg early in the race that he had to pass Jarno Trulli or else his race was over. “It was absolutely true,” Nico smiled. “I had started on the dirty side of the grid and Jarno beat me away with a heavy one-stop fuel load. I had to risk it. I locked everything up but made it past, even though I flat-spotted the tyres. I risked putting it in the wall but if I hadn't tried I was going nowhere anyway.”
Singapore was the first time, since the season-opening Melbourne race, that Williams has finished in the points with both drivers. It was also the first time this year that the team has got both cars through to the top 10 Q3 qualifying shoot-out. Nico Rosberg, having stood on the podium in Australia with third place, went one better in Singapore. “It`s nice to be on the podium for the whole team because it gives everyone working so hard a big boost for the final three races, the winter and for next year. Luck was on our side for once!” Nico said.
