Chinese GP: Williams Race Review

By Williams F1 Team
April 14 2013

 
 Williams Chinese GP Race Review
 
Bottas
 
Race Notes
• Valtteri Bottas finished 13th ahead of Pastor Maldonado in 14th in this afternoon’s Chinese Grand Prix.
• The team opted to split strategies with both cars running a three-stop race but with Pastor starting on the soft option tyre while Valtteri started on the prime, choosing to run the option for his final stint.
• The soft tyres proved much quicker in the closing stages and Valtteri was able to move ahead of his teammate into the hairpin on the penultimate lap.
Pastor Maldonado:  Pastor Maldonado
 "It was a difficult race from the beginning. We lost a lot of time on the option tyres in the first stint and we just didn’t have the pace. We didn’t have a chance to fight for any higher positions and we know we are still far away from where we want to be, but we will keep our focus on improving."
Valtteri Bottas: 
Valtteri Bottas"The team did a good job with the strategy today and we made the most out of what we had. I think it was the best race I have done this season but we need to find more pace to get closer to the front. I knew it was going to be close with Pastor at the end, so I was pushing hard in my final stint on the medium tyres. I was then right behind him on the faster option tyres and so able to make a move on the penultimate lap. It was a nice end to the race but we still need to improve so we can race for points."
Mike Coughlan, Technical Director:
 Mike Coughlan"We planned to do three stops with both cars today but decided to run one car on the option to start and one to finish, as our main race tyre was the prime medium tyre. We knew that both strategies, if the drivers weren’t caught in traffic, would be very similar as seen by ours cars finishing just 1.6 seconds apart at the end. The option tyres were much quicker at the end so Valtteri made a clean move to finish ahead. We got the maximum we could out of the FW35 today, but we know we still need to find more performance, and we will be focusing on this for the next few races."
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader:
 "It’s clear we were not where we would like to be today. Bahrain is a different type of track with lots of different speed corners that should play to the strengths of the Renault RS27 engine so we will work with the guys in Grove to get back to full form as soon as we can. "
 
Maldonado Cockpit
 

Track Shanghai International Circuit, China
56 laps, 305.26km / 189.68 miles

Weather Warm and dry
Air: 16 - 26°C Track: 25 - 35°C

POS

DRIVER

TEAM

Time (Fastest Lap)

Grid

1

F Alonso

 Ferrari 1:36:26.945 ( 1:39.506, 4th)

3

2

 K Raikkonen Lotus

+ 10.168 (1:39.955, 5th)

2

3

 L Hamilton Mercedes

+ 12.322 (1:39.981, 5th)

 1
 
13 V BOTTAS
FW35-01 R275421		 Williams F1 Team + 93.861 (1:39.506, 5th) 16
14 P MALDONADO
FW35-02 R275436		 Williams F1 Team +95.453 (1:40.968, 13th) 14
 

Bookmark or share this story with:

Chinese GP: Williams Race Review
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 14/04/2013 11:59
Williams F1
14/04/2013 11:59
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.

Reply Quote Report
Goto: Forum List•Message List•Search• Log In
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment. We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals. We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards. If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing abuse@sportnetwork.net