Williams: A first day without shine for Bottas and Massa
Stuck in the middle of the standings, the two Williams drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa, will have to work hard before the qualifiers to have a chance at a regular podium finish during the race.
The Chinese Grand Prix opens on a challenging first day for the Williams drivers. While Valtteri Bottas managed to break into the top ten in both sessions, albeit far from the Mercedes, Felipe Massa wasn’t as fortunate, and an issue with his car in FP2 prevented him from completing his work:
The first session went according to our schedule, but this afternoon we had some problems with the rear wing. During braking, I lost all grip with the rear tires, and as a result, the car got away from me, which prevented me from participating in the rest of the session, the Brazilian explained before adding: We lost a lot of time, but the team made the necessary modifications to Valtteri’s rear wing so that he doesn’t encounter the same problem. We need a strong day tomorrow to put us in a good position for the race.
On his side, Bottas did not experience any problems, but a clear lack of competitiveness prevented him from ranking higher than his 7th position achieved in FP2: « It was a normal Friday for us with no errors or issues. The upgrades we brought worked, so we’re a bit quicker in the corners now, which is always positive. The temperature here suits us better than in Malaysia, so I think we can be strong in qualifying but we need to make sure we focus on the race and especially on the left tire which is suffering from graining. »
