Very mixed first day at Canada for Williams

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Canada, Circuit Gilles Villeneuveca

The Canadian GP weekend has started very differently for the Williams drivers. Pastor Maldonado had a positive day during which all planned items, including aerodynamic and tyre evaluation were completed. Bruno Senna on the other hand had technical issues and a crash, badly disrupting his race preparation.

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer:
"We had a mixed day today with Pastor completing his entire run plan, despite having to readjust the programme ahead of the first session due to the impending inclement weather conditions. Bruno's running was hampered in the first session with a fault on his DRS system which was rectified for the second session. Unfortunately Bruno made heavy contact with the wall during the second session. He is perfectly fine and the mechanics are now working hard to rebuild the car. We are happy with our long run pace but still have work to do to optimise the car for qualifying."

Pastor Maldonado:
"We completed all of the things that we had planned for the session so we have had a productive day and are in a good place heading into the weekend. We still need to work on the set-up to get the right balance, but overall the car felt good and was consistent, particularly on the long runs. We have also brought some upgrades to this race and they were performing well which is encouraging."

Bruno Senna:
"It was a difficult day today. I had DRS issues during the morning session and have limited experience of this circuit so today was about getting my eye in and seeing how far I can push the car. Obviously I pushed too hard towards the end of P2 and hit the wall, which is disappointing. Nevertheless we have made some improvements on the overall package and tomorrow morning I can go out and try to fine tune the set-up to get a good result on Sunday."