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Disappointed Williams confident of return to points at Monza

ESPN Staff
September 4, 2012 « Tyres still causing headaches at Mercedes | McLaren now on a higher level - Ferrari »
Pastor Maldonado qualified third but retired on lap four © Sutton Images
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Williams is confident it can bounce back from its disappointing Belgian Grand Prix with a double points finish at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix.

Pastor Maldonado qualified third at Spa-Francorchamps, but a grid penalty for blocking another car, a jumped start and an accident at the restart meant he failed to score and resulted in a ten-place grid penalty for this weekend's race. Despite running in the top ten during the race, a puncture dropped Bruno Senna to 12th by the finish, but chief operations engineer Mark Gillan believes the team will be stronger at Monza.

"The weekend promised a lot so to come away with no points is disappointing," he said. "I am proud of the effort that the whole team has put in over this difficult weekend and whilst we ultimately didn't score points we have learnt a lot and should therefore be stronger in Monza as a result of this. We are aiming to get both cars home in the points and provided we have a trouble free weekend there are no reasons why this cannot be achieved."

Gillan also heaped praise on Maldonado's qualifying lap.

"We were very pleased with Pastor's qualifying and he drove exceptionally well, pushing the car to the limit."

And he backed up his driver's account of why the jump start happened.

"Pastor jumped the start as his fingers slipped from the clutch paddle by mistake."

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