Eleven points lost (Williams race review)

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Williams were on course for fifth and sixth places with five laps to go before their drivers hit trouble. They ended up with seventh and tenth which keeps them behind Force India in the constructors’ championship.

Rubens Barrichello Nico Hulkenberg
Qualifying position 10 11
Qualifying time comparison (Q2) 1’37.511 (-0.109) 1’37.620
Race position 7 10
Laps 55/55 55/55
Pit stops 1 2

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Rubens Barrichello

Complained that he was held up by Michael Schumacher in Q2 but made it through to Q3 anyway, where he qualified tenth. The two Cosworth-powered Williams cars were at the bottom of the speed trap figures in qualifying.

He ran wide at turn four at the start, falling behind Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil – but took one place back when Sutil went off on the next lap.

Pit stops and retirements promoted him to fifth place by the dying stages but he went off on lap 52, allowing Robert Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi past.

Compare Rubens Barrichello’s form against his team mate in 2010

Nico Hulkenberg

Felt he would have made it into Q3 had it not been for a mistake at turn 12 on his fastest lap. As it was Barrichello pipped him by a tenth of a second.

He passed Robert Kubica on lap 26 but pitting for intermediates on the lap before the safety car came out cost him places to Barrichello and Vitaly Petrov.

Towards the end of the race a slow puncture caused an off-track moment and a pit stop for fresh tyres, dropping him out of the points.

He recovered to snatch the final point for tenth off Jaime Alguersuari on the final lap.

Sam Michael said:

They were monitoring a tyre pressure leak, but suddenly it accelerated, so they had to pit. Nico did well to recover from the Safety Car and his puncture to score a point for the team.
Sam Michael

Compare Nico Hulkenberg’s form against his team mate in 2010

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    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    9 comments on “Eleven points lost (Williams race review)”

    1. Possibly Barrichello qualified 10th in Q3, not 12th?

      1. Indeed – fixed it.

    2. It is too bad Vettel’s attempt to get the race stopped early didn’t work… would have helped Williams too! :)

    3. Hulkenburg made a place up but was actually slower on the new tyres! Yesterday I speculated if McLaren might have given Hamilton new tyres and then made his way back up to fight Alonso, but the data here suggests the new tyres would have only stopped him from struggling in the end stages.

    4. Keith on the last quote you have “Nico Hulkenberg” at the bottom but it’s from Sam Michael so I got a tad confused?

      Such a shame Nico had to pit again. I think he did pretty well.

      1. Thanks Steph, fixed it.

    5. so sad!

      Williams deserve to be ahead of Force India. Their progress through the season was very good and they have had the speed to get their cars in Q3 frequently.

      Such a shame they go a bit backwards on Sundays!!

      Hope they manage to overtake FI in the end!

      1. I am expecting a spirited drive from Rubens in Brazil. After all, it is about time he had a bit of luck in his home race. Hopefully he can manage a top 5 finish, that would satisfy me!

    6. They were doing well until they had trouble.

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