Felipe Massa has expressed his satisfaction over the progress Williams made overnight which allowed the Brazilian to qualify sixth at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Heading into the Singapore Grand Prix, Williams were expected to struggle and Friday’s practice times suggested that however changes overnight allowed Massa to qualify sixth with team-mate Bottas in eighth.
“This has been a promising qualifying for us because we have made big improvements compared to yesterday and we are in the mix with the teams around us in the championship. Top four may have been possible, especially considering how tight it is, but sixth is a solid result.
“What is really encouraging is that we identified the problem we had yesterday and the changes we made improved the car as we expected so a really good job by the team. Tomorrow will be tough. This is the longest race of the season, the conditions are challenging, and there can be safety cars so our first thought is to get both cars home in the points.”
Despite Bottas qualifying behind his more experienced team-mate (for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix where Massa took pole), Bottas is confident of a strong race.
“We made strong improvements from yesterday’s practice sessions to FP3, and we did this again going into qualifying. The mechanical set-up of the car has improved as the weekend has progressed and we have done a good job in getting the tyres into the right temperature window which we struggled with yesterday.
“My out-lap on my final run in Q3 was a little compromised, and I made a mistake in Turn One, so given how tight it was I could have gained more places but we need to be satisfied with where we are. We know we have the pace to fight with the cars around us so tomorrow should be an exciting race.”
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