Williams suffer worst qualifying of 2012

After a promising start to the 2012 season, with Williams scoring a double points finish in China last time out, the Grove based team have suffered their worst qualifying result of 2012. Pastor Maldonado has suffered a 5-place grid penalty, and will start 22nd with Bruno Senna starting only 15th on the grid.

In 2011, Williams suffered a disastrous season with Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado only managing to score a handful of points all season. However, their luck looked to be on the up as the 2012 season got underway, as they have already scored over double the amount of points in comparison to last season after only three races.

However, both Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna look set to have a difficult race tomorrow, as they start lower down the order than they have all season. With the midfield pack so tight this season, a bad result tomorrow could see the team plummet down the Constructors’ Championship standings, as the likes of Toro Rosso, Sauber and Force India potentially finish higher up the order.

“We have had a relatively tough day today with Pastor experiencing a KERs problem in qualifying which forced us to pit his car and take no further part in the session.” Explained Williams Chief Operations Engineer, Mark Gillan. “This was particularly disappointing as Pastor felt that his car balance was good. Bruno continued to improve throughout qualifying, finishing in P15 in what is a tight grid. We now need to concentrate on tomorrow and hope to use our better race pace to potentially make our way up into the points.”

Both Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado are confident heading into the race tomorrow, and are eager to try and put their competitive race pace to good use. But with such a tight midfield this season, passing the likes Kobayashi, Raikkonen and Hulkenberg could prove tough as they progress up the order during the race.

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