Another point-less race for Williams, who finished at the bottom of the Japanese results ahead of Lotus, Virgin, HRT...
Williams:
Pastor Maldonado: "We had a difficult start on the prime tyres and our pace in the first stint was penalised quite heavily by them. We went onto the options at the second pitstop and that improved our pace considerably. We became fairly consistent after that. Towards the end of the race our pace was quick, I think possibly the quickest it's been all weekend, but it was too late as we'd already lost out on a better finish in the opening laps. I did the best I possibly could today but it was not enough."
Rubens Barrichello: "Everything seemed to be playing our way at the start but then the safety car was deployed. That was bad timing for us. It closed the pack up and left us struggling on the wrong tyre at the end of the race which was too slow."
Team Lotus:
Heikki Kovalainen: "What a great race for the whole team! I made an incredible start, no wheelspin, the perfect clutch slip and was suddenly past a load of cars and up into 14th. It looked like everyone else went into reverse and I even heard one of the engineers laugh and accidentally telling someone else how brilliant the start was, and I thought 'no! Don't mention it now, I need to get on with the rest of the race!' After that the first couple of stints were great. The car was working really well on the soft tyres and the stops were mega, and then the safety car came out and bunched everyone up so from there it was a race to the flag with Jarno and I stayed ahead until the last lap. The car has felt balanced all weekend so on the harder compound I was still able to push all afternoon, and even though I was held up a bit by the Virgins and the HRTs when they were being shown blue flags, I was still able to keep ahead of Jarno and as he's always been quick here that feels pretty good. Also - the fact that this is the first time this season we didn't see any blue flags is very satisfying. Every time you have to let someone pass you are artificially slowing up your own race, and it shows our car keeps improving, as does the whole team. Ok, the safety car helped us, but then you have to be in the right place to take advantage of whatever happens on track, and today we did just that. A great day."
Jarno Trulli: "For me that was a good day. It didn't start too well - for once my start wasn't perfect but once we got under way I was able to put in a few good passes and was making up ground. After a few laps it felt like I had a problem with the gearbox that slowed me down, but it came back and almost immediately the safety car came out and I was able to make up the gap to Heikki and we both had a good run to the end. For the whole team this is a pretty significant result. We completed every lap of the race, and while that might not seem all that important when there are guys winning championships up ahead, it still shows we keep on improving, and I'm really pleased for everyone, here at the track and back at the factory, that we can leave Japan on a high again and head to the next race in Korea."
Virgin:
Timo Glock: "I had a good start, got on the outside and managed to get Jerome in the first part of the first two corners. I nearly hit Trulli; he pushed me out and I went out on to the grass and unfortunately couldn't stay on track, so I lost position again and was behind Jerome. I was stuck behind him for the first stint, which destroyed my tyres in the first five or six laps because I was a bit quicker than him and then he started to pull away. We went for an early pitstop but the right rear tyre didn't go on well and I lost 4-5 seconds, the position against Ricciardo and then Jerome was able to pull quite far away. Then the safety car came out and we switched to a three-stop and the hard tyre. I was able to get in front of Jerome but at the end it was quite difficult against all the blue flags and I had a few tough moments. Anyway, we got both cars home no problem and we got the best out of the cars. I'm looking forward to Korea but we have to look at the car set-up again as it was okay, but not magic."
Jerome D'Ambrosio: "I think it was a good race. I had a good start and first part of the race. I'm not sure if we went for the best option regarding the strategy, as I lost my position to Timo in the pits, which is a shame. But I came back on him in the end and we had a great fight but he was able to end the race ahead. It was a positive weekend for me and I'm happy with this."
Hispania:
Daniel Ricciardo: "The race went quite well considering yesterday's pace, we've got to be happy about being only a few tenths behind the Virgins. At one stage I was in front but the safety car didn't help. It came out at times that didn't suit us. But I'm happy with the performance and, personally, I'm pleased with the way I drove and I don't think I could have done much more. The car was good; with every run we made adjustments that improved it. I'm happy for the team because it was a strong race for us. We made good progress since the last few races we've had incidents in the first few laps so I'm satisfied to have had a clean race."
Tonio Liuzzi: "It was a really tough race where we paid the consequences for hardly doing any laps on Friday and Saturday. We went into the race with a bit of a blind set-up. We suffered massive degradation with the rear tyres, especially the rear left, and I wasn't able to do many laps with any set of tyres. At the beginning it wasn't too bad and I was able to fight the drivers ahead but once I passed a few laps I had to pit. It was a massive fight and reaching the finish line was the most positive aspect of the day."
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