Nico Rosberg believes Williams should be able to score sufficient points in the Abu Dhabi season finale to keep BMW Sauber at bay in the constructors’ championship.
The German qualified ninth, directly behind the two BMWs – a less than ideal starting position for Williams, which lies sixth in the championship table just 2.5 points ahead of its Hinwil-based rival.
Rosberg also needs a strong finish if he is to stay ahead of Jarno Trulli in the drivers’ standings; he currently has a four-point advantage but will start Sunday’s race three places behind the Toyota driver.
Despite struggling with a lack of top speed on the Yas Marina circuit’s two long straights, Rosberg is optimistic he and Williams will be able to defend their respective positions – and is determined to end his four-year stint with the Grove squad on a high.
“I think ninth was around the best we could get out of today,” he said.
“We are definitely struggling on the open sections of this circuit, but points are definitely possible here and very important for us this weekend.
“From the fifth row and with a good strategy tomorrow, we can stay ahead of BMW in the constructors and I can hold seventh position ahead of Trulli in the drivers’ championship.
“It’s a good track, not easy and very hot, but this is also the last race for me with Williams and I want to do the best for this great team.”
The failure of Kazuki Nakajima to score any points so far this season has left Williams exposed in the championship standings, and the Japanese driver again let an opportunity slip with a mistake on his final lap of Q2 that left him 14th on the grid.
“I’m a bit disappointed because I didn’t manage to put everything together in Q2, but there was still a reasonable gap to the first 10, so maybe I wouldn’t have made it into the final qualifying session anyway,” said Nakajima.
“The track demands that you are precise all the time and one mistake here is costly, which makes it pretty difficult.
“I don’t think it will be easy to overtake tomorrow, but because of the nature of sectors one and two, we could have a pretty crazy first lap tomorrow, so I still believe anything is possible.”
Chief operations engineer Rod Nelson added: “It was a reasonably straightforward qualifying session, although we did expect the option tyre to come into its own in Q2 [and] this didn’t materialise, so we along with most other teams stayed on the prime tyre.
“We hoped that Nico had another couple of tenths in him to get among the BMWs just in front, but he starts from the clean side of the grid and he should have a competitive race.
“Kazuki was also looking competitive on what would have been his fastest lap at the end of the prime run in qualifying two but he ran a little wide in turn 14, got some dirt on his tyres and that, unfortunately, was that.”