United States GP: Bottas ninth in qualifying for Williams F1


By Williams F1 Team
November 17 2013

Qualifying for the 2013 United States GP would see the Williams F1 team achive two vastly different results with Valtteri Bottas finishing in 9th while for team-mate Pastor Maldonado he would finish in 18th. The results came down to how well the drivers got their tyres working, something which Pastor did not quite get right.

 
 Williams United States GP Qualifying Review
Bottas
 
Qualifying Notes
• Valtteri Bottas qualified ninth with Pastor Maldonado 18th for tomorrow’s United States Grand Prix.
• Pastor’s qualifying was hindered by traffic in Q1 which meant that he just missed out on Q2.
• Valtteri was able to put a great lap together in every session to progress through to Q3.
• The team will be aiming to maximise the opportunity for points in the race tomorrow
 
Pastor Maldonado: 
Pastor Maldonado"We have struggled this weekend and today showed that; the car doesn’t feel right in terms of the tyres pressures or temperatures so we need to take a closer look at that. We got held up by a bit of
traffic, which meant that we weren’t able to get into Q2. We will try to do our best in the race tomorrow from the position we’re in."
Valtteri Bottas:
 Valtteri Bottas"I really enjoyed today and I am happy with that performance. To be honest I expected a bit more in Q3 because we were competitive in Q1 and Q2. I’m very happy for the team; they’ve all done a great
job and improved the car a lot from practice to qualifying. We are in a good position for tomorrow and we need to try and gain from this and score some points in the race."
Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer:
 Xevi Pujolar"he Circuit of the Americas is quite unique in terms of track layout,
roughness and temperature which, mixed with the fact that the tyre compound choices are on the conservative side, makes getting the tyres working well the key to a good qualifying lap. We had better performance in FP1 and were working to bring this back in practice this morning. We had both cars on similar configurations targeting the same optimum operating window for the tyres, and knew if we could achieve this then there was potential for a good result with both cars. Valtteri got the tyres working well and put in a consistently strong performance throughout qualifying to get into Q3. We didn't quite get the tyre performance with Pastor, but despite starting 18th he always makes a good start and fights through on the opening laps, so we still expect him to move forward in the race. Overall, it was great to have Valtteri qualify in ninth and we now aim to convert a good result today into points tomorrow."
Maldonado
 

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas 5.513 kms / 3.425 miles  

Weather: Warm and dry
Air: 27 - 27°C Track: 28 - 31°C

POS

DRIVER

TEAM

Q1

Q2

 Q3

1

 S Vettel Red Bull 1:38.516 1:37.065 1:36.338

2

 M Webber Red Bull 1:38.161 1:37.312 1:36.441
3 R Grosjean Lotus F1 1:38.676 1:37.523 1:37.155
           
9

V Bottas
FW35 01
RS27-5488/2

 Williams F1 Team 1:37.821 (1st) 1:37.439 (4th) 1:37.836
18 P Maldonado
FW35 02
RS27-5429/2		 Williams F1 Team 1:39.351 - -
 

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United States GP: Bottas ninth in qualifying for Williams F1
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17/11/2013 10:58
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