Spanish GP: Difficult race for Williams
By Williams F1 Team
May 14 2013
The 2013 Spanish GP would see Williams F1 drivers Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas finish in 14th and 16th. It was a very difficult race for both drivers with both struggling for pace as welll as suffering from high tyre degredation during the race.
| Williams Spanish GP Race Review |
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Race Notes • Pastor Maldonado finished 14th with Valtteri Bottas 16th in today’s Spanish Grand Prix. • The team opted to switch Pastor onto a four-stop strategy, because of the high tyre degradation, with Valtteri remaining on his planned three-stop. • Pastor received a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane during his first scheduled stop. • Both drivers had solid races getting the most they could out of the FW35. |
Pastor Maldonado:
 "The pace was unfortunately not in the car today. We made one more pit stop than we hoped to because I was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane but overall we did the best we could. We now need to regroup, work hard and prepare for Monaco." |
Valtteri Bottas:  "I
couldn’t feel the grip in the car and we were sliding a lot from the
start which meant we were hard on the tyres. We made a three-stop
strategy work but in the end, Pastor switched to a four-stop race and
that seemed to be better. We’re not where we want to be, so there is
still a lot of work to do."
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Mike Coughlan, Technical
Director: "We
knew it would be a difficult race today but we can draw a slight
positive from the three places Pastor gained from his grid position. We
were suffering with high tyre degradation and so made the decision to
switch Pastor onto a four-stop strategy. We committed to a three-stop
with Valtteri, but we then lost a lot of time. We need to check the data
as the degradation on his car was unusual compared to the pace we had on
Friday. Everyone at Williams knows what needs to be done to turn things
around and we need to keep working hard. We'd also like to thank all our
fans and partners for their continued support." |
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Laurent Debout, Renault
Sport F1 team support leader: "We’ve worked hard this weekend to optimise the new parts on the car and it has been a small step forward. We will now put this information into the programme for Monaco, which should play to the strengths of the chassis-engine package a lot more. Some of the advantages of the Renault engine are driveability and responsiveness and this is exactly what you need out of the slow corners at Monte Carlo. If we get a good result there it will really turn us round and kick start the momentum we need going into the next part of the season." |
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Track Circuit de Catalunya,
Barcelona |
Weather Warm and dry | |||
|
POS |
DRIVER |
TEAM |
Time (Fastest Lap) |
Grid |
|
1 |
F Alonso |
Ferrari | 1:39:16.596 (1:26.681, 5th) |
5 |
|
2 |
K Raikkonen | Lotus |
+ 9.338 (1:26.757, 6th) |
4 |
|
3 |
F Massa | Ferrari |
+ 26.049 (1:26.394, 2nd) |
9 |
| 14 |
P MALDONADO FW35-02 R275447 |
Williams F1 Team | + 1 lap (1:27.849, 12th) | 17 |
| 16 |
V BOTTAS FW35-01 R275421 |
Williams F1 Team | + 1 lap (1:29.747, 20th) | 16 |
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