• Chinese Grand Prix

Gillan praises drives by Williams pair

Both Williams drivers ran competitively throughout the race © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Chinese Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Pastor Maldonado
• |
• Bruno Senna

• Teams:
• Williams

Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan said that the team's double top ten finish was the result of "great drives" by Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado.

Senna finished the race in seventh place having started in 14th place, while Maldonado followed him home having been one place further up on the grid. With Williams already comfortably eclipsing its points total from last year and beating both Ferraris and a Lotus today, a delighted Gillan said that making the tyres last had been crucial for the team.

"I am so happy for the whole team," Gillan said. "It is an excellent result to get both cars into the points, the culmination of everyone's hard work and dedication, coupled with great drives by both drivers to manage their tyres and make a two-stop strategy work."

Bruno Senna was also pleased with the result but warned the team could still improve further.

"It was a great result for the team to finish with two cars in the points today," Senna said. "It was a tough race and tyre wear was high. Our strategy worked for us today but we're still learning and improving together. We aim to continue to get better throughout the next few races."

It was a sentiment that was echoed by Maldonado who said: "It was very tough today.

"I lost places at the start and it was difficult to overtake but we had good pace. We were able to fight all the way to the end so I'm happy to get some points. It was a great result for the team."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.