Difficult day for Williams team in Montreal

Race Notes

• It was a difficult day for the Williams F1 Team, with Pastor Maldonado finishing 13th and Bruno Senna 17th.

• After starting in 22nd place following a five place grid-penalty for a gear box change, Pastor made a good start to the race making up a number of places on the first lap.

• Bruno Senna lost time during his first stint on supersoft tyres before showing good consistent pace towards the end of the race.

• Both cars opted for a one-stop strategy, with tyre management the key during the race. The Williams-Renault FW34 showed good long run performance at the beginning of the weekend which is encouraging heading into the next race.

Pastor Maldonado, Williams F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: It was a tough race today for both cars and ultimately we didn't have the pace that we expected to have and which we showed during our long runs on Friday. Both drivers did a good job managing the tyres on their one-stop strategies. We must now learn from the transition in pace throughout the weekend in order to better understand how to optimise the car, and especially the tyres, in changeable track conditions.

Pastor Maldonado: Today the car felt very consistent and was pretty well balanced, but unfortunately starting so far back after qualifying meant that I could not really have a good run at finishing in a points-paying position. Our one-stop strategy meant that I had to manage the tyres carefully but when I did get to push in the final few laps the car was quick. The car’s performance in long runs is something we can be optimistic about heading into the next race, we just need to focus on improving our qualifying pace so we start from a better position.

Bruno Senna: It was a difficult race today because I lost a lot of time on the first stint on the supersoft tyres and from that point on it was just a case of trying to look after the tyres as much as I could during the second stint. We have learnt a lot from this race and I am looking forward to the next one in Valencia, where hopefully we can get the most out of the car’s potential.

Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: It has been a tough and difficult weekend for us. We had the pace in the car, but unfortunately the lower starting positions compromised the race for both drivers. Pastor could make up some positions but just not enough to get any points today. We’ll move onto Valencia and hope for better.

Championship Positions: Constructors’ 7th (44 points), Maldonado: 10th, Senna: 13th.