Mixed day for Williams

29/07/2012

Mat Coch writes:

It was a day of mixed emotions at Williams after Bruno Senna finished a credible seventh while teammate Pastor Maldonado was only capable of thirteenth.

Maldonado had qualified eighth, though he struggled for pace during the race after a bad start dropped the Venezuelan to twelfth. Things went from bad to worse however, when a clumsy move on Paul Di Resta on lap 46 saw the Williams driver referred to the stewards for the fifth time this season.

A late dive under braking heading in to Turn 12 saw the pair make content, Maldonado having slid in to the side of di Resta's Force India. While the contact was not especially hard the stewards felt it was unnecessary and handed Maldonado a drive through penalty.

"From my point of view it was too hard," Maldonado exclaimed after the race. "Sure there was a little bit of contact but nothing big but it seems to be like that this year."

Meanwhile Senna had been making quite progress up the field, pitting from seventh on lap 16, a position he would ultimately keep to the end to record his sixth points finish of the year.

"It was a lot of battles for me," he said. "I have to thank the Hungaroring for being difficult to overtake because it's always good to start in ninth place and finish in seventh.

"I'm really happy for the team, I think we did a good job with what we had and let's hope that this is a turning point for us and we continue scoring points throughout the season."

Senna's six points came with the added bonus that none of his team's direct rivals in the Constructors' Championship managed to add to their totals. It gives the team a seven-point buffer to Force India (46-points) while it now trails Sauber (80) by twenty-seven points.

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