• Monaco Grand Prix

Williams recovered following fire

The Williams celebrations in Barcelona were short-lived following the fire © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Monaco Grand Prix

• Teams:
• Williams

Williams is ready for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix after what has been described as "a Herculean effort by the factory and our suppliers" following the fire in Barcelona.

As the team was celebrating Pastor Maldonado's victory in the Spanish Grand Prix a fire broke out in the Williams garage, heavily damaging some equipment and leaving team members needing hospital treatment. Looking forward to this weekend's race in Monaco, however, chief operations engineer Mark Gillan said that the team had recovered and thanked the rest of the paddock for its help.

"On the back of Pastor's excellent win in Barcelona both drivers are eager to get back on track, aiming to bring both cars home in the points on Sunday afternoon," Gillan said. "The team's preparations for Monaco have been somewhat hampered by last Sunday's garage fire, but the impact of the fire has been mitigated by what can only be described as a Herculean effort by the factory and our suppliers to restock both the damaged equipment and car parts. We would also like to thank the generous offers of help from the other teams, highlighting once more the excellent sportsmanship that exists in Formula One and high levels of camaraderie throughout the pit lane."

Gillan also said he was hopeful that the team could repeat the strong qualifying performance it displayed in Spain this weekend due to more updates being added to the car.

"This is the first race this year where both the soft and super-soft tyres will be available and the latest forecast predicts a dry weekend. As always in Monaco qualifying will be critical, as will race strategy to ensure that track position is maintained, but with further upgrades coming to this event we are hopeful that we can continue to make decent progress and look forward to a good weekend."

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