Bottas shines to secure 8th for Williams
Valtteri Bottas has confirmed that the Williams FW35 really is an improved car since the team decided to ditch the Coanda exhaust. The Finn finished 8th to get 4 points. Pastor Maldonado got involved in an incident in turn 1 and finished 17th.
Pastor's contact with Sutil's Force India on the first lap forced him to pit early for a new front wing which compromised his strategy.
Xevi Pujolar, Chief Race Engineer: "It was a good start by both cars but we quickly saw that Pastor had picked up some front wing damage following contact with Sutil on the opening lap. We had planned one-stop races for both drivers, but due to the damage we brought Pastor in much earlier for his switch to the prime tyres. With the higher track temperatures today we were being cautious in the early stages to manage the tyres, but the early data gathered from Pastor showed that our pace and consistency was good. After a good start Valtteri had a strong race, fighting hard when needed and making a great move to overtake Gutiérrez for eighth. We managed the gap to Rosberg behind us and Valtteri was able to push in the final laps to make sure he held the position. It was a great result for him to secure his first Formula One points and a well deserved end to the weekend for all the team. Despite finishing P17, Pastor also had a strong drive and had we not needed to make the early stop, there was potential for both cars to be up in the points today. It was a great improvement for us here in Austin and now we aim to continue the momentum to end the season on a high in Brazil."
Valtteri Bottas, 8th: "I'm very happy to get my first points in Formula One today. The whole weekend has been good from setting up the car in practice through to the strategy and pitstops in the race. We managed the tyres well today and I had good feedback from my engineers on them throughout. We did have a bit of pressure from Rosberg at the end but I was able to keep pushing and hold the position. I want to say a big thanks to everyone in the team and at the factory as they have all been working so hard and really deserve this result."
Pastor Maldonado, 17th: "It was a difficult race for me as the incident with Sutil compromised the strategy. We did manage to get 40 laps out of the prime tyres which was pleasing on a track like this. Overall, we had a difficult weekend and I'm looking forward to a better race in Brazil."
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: "Finally, a great race for the team with a perfect strategy, tyre management and pit stop that allowed us to deliver on the promise shown in the last two events. Valtteri did an amazing job to deservedly score his first points here, finishing in front of Rosberg and fighting with Alonso, and on pace alone. It would be mega to replicate this finish in the last race of the season next weekend, which will be the curtain call for the Renault V8 engine and unfortunately for the Williams-Renault partnership this time round. Ending both on a high is definitely the goal."
