Williams upbeat after strong qualifying

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Great-Britain, Silverstone Circuitgb

In front of a home crowd at Silverstone, both AT&T Williams drivers eased through Q1 and Q2 to earn a place in the top ten shoot out. Kazuki Nakajima went on to claim his best qualifying ever with the fifth fastest time. Team mate, Nico Rosberg, will line up just behind Kazuki on row four in seventh place.

Kazuki Nakajima: Fifth is the best qualifying result I’ve had so far so I’m really happy. After yesterday’s practice, I thought we could be quite strong today because the car is working really well here. We seem to have taken a step forward so many thanks to the team as they’ve brought a really good upgrade package to this race. To be sitting in fifth position on the grid and racing on my favourite track tomorrow is great and my goal will be to have a solid race and score some points for the team.

Nico Rosberg: On the one hand, I‘m pleased because we’ve made progress with the car and are looking competitive. On the other hand, it wasn’t the perfect day for me today because I didn’t manage to get the best out of the car in Q3. I’m still really pleased with where we are with the car, though. The team has done a fantastic job, even on this track which is normally one of the most challenging for us. Being in fifth and seventh shows we’re up there and, with a strong strategy tomorrow, we should score points. And that was a good job by Kazuki who’s been quick all weekend here. I’ll try to catch him tomorrow!

Sam Michael, Technical Director: That was a satisfying qualifying session from the team. Our development programme of the car, and the direction we’re taking, is going well. Kazuki’s performance in qualifying today was the best of his career so far and he did it well, carrying over the speed he showed in practice and then in the earlier qualifying rounds. Nico also did well and his strategy will pay off in the race. Our focus now is on tomorrow and getting the best strategy in place in order to score points with both cars at our home Grand Prix.