Brazilian GP: Qualifying notes - Williams

24/11/2012

Pastor Maldonado qualified sixth and Bruno Senna 12th for tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix. After comfortably getting through into Q3, Pastor put in a strong lap as the times continued to fall after the track had dried out from an earlier rain shower. Bruno just missed out on Q3 after putting in some good clean laps in Q1. With heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, the team will be aiming to bring both cars home in the points in the final race of the 2012 season.

Pastor Maldonado: I'm happy with the qualifying result today. Q1 was a bit close at the end because of the traffic, but the car felt good. It was very consistent and quick which meant we were able to push hard in the top 10. We have continued the form from the last few races, so things are looking good for the team in this race.

Bruno Senna: We were optimistic of getting into Q3 today, but unfortunately as the weather got hotter it wasn't the best conditions for the car, and we were doing slower lap times than this morning's practice session. We made a few decisions before qualifying based on the fact that we were expecting the track to be a bit cooler, but ultimately that wasn't the case. P12 isn't a bad position to start in at Interlagos though, so we're in a good position to score points tomorrow.

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Having struggled a bit yesterday, we worked hard overnight to adapt the car balance for qualifying whilst keeping a watchful eye on the likely wet race conditions. Both drivers were much happier with the car balance today and drove very well in the initial damp green track conditions in Q1. Bruno was ultimately unlucky not to proceed into Q3 and Pastor had a very good session finishing in a strong P6. The forecast predicts heavy overnight rain and we look forward to what will no doubt be a very eventful race.

Check out our Qualifying gallery, here.