by Chris Hayes
There will be an awful lot of head-scratching going on at Williams after an abysmal performance in Kuala Lumpur stopped the team's lightning start to its 2008 campaign in its tracks.
The Grove-based outfit's disastrous Malaysian weekend – which began in qualifying with
Nico Rosberg and
Kazuki Nakajima languishing down in 16th and 22nd positions respectively – was compounded on the race's first lap when the young German ploughed into the back of countryman Timo Glock's
Toyota. Though he would rejoin after having a new nose fitted to his FW30 and go on to set some blisteringly quick lap times to show what might have been, the damage – in both a literal and metaphorical sense – had already been done.
The result was particularly painful for the team given the
Williams' sensational podium success in Melbourne, as technical director Sam Michael acknowledged.
“This was a race weekend to move on from,” the Australian rued. “After a poor qualifying, we tried two different strategies on the cars, Nico on a one-stop and Kazuki on a two-stop. The plan didn't work out because Nico lost his front wing on the first lap and Kazuki had a puncture.”
Rosberg, the architect behind Williams' rostrum finish seven days earlier, did well to finish as high as 14th in the light of his opening lap indiscretion.
“I knew that starting from 16th I would have to take some risks to make the race worthwhile, and in fact it went well off the line considering I was carrying a lot of fuel,” mulled the inaugural GP2 champion after his troubled drive was over.
“Then I came together with
Timo Glock. When he left a gap, I went for it and I got alongside him. I guess he didn't see me as he turned in and I couldn't back out, which was unfortunate.
“The car was better today in the race but despite everything I tried, it really wasn't our weekend. Now I am just looking forward to Bahrain where things should go better.”
