For the third time this season, Williams have failed to get both cars into the final part of qualifying ahead Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
After Valtteri Bottas had secured third place on the grid in the past two races at Suzuka, the mood was positive that the circuit could suit the FW38 and generate a good result, however, this was not the case with Bottas in 11th and teammate Felipe Massa just behind in 12th place.
Bottas said: “Looking at our qualifying performance here from the past few years it’s disappointing not to be in Q3. We just weren’t quick enough today. I had a little bit of traffic in Q2, but the speed just wasn’t there.
“The positive thing from today is that we have a free choice of tyres for the race. We have the same opportunity that we had in Malaysia to do something different with the strategy, hopefully, we can make good use of that.”
Williams are in a very tight battle with Force India for fourth place in the Constructor’s championship, currently, a gap of just three points separates them with five races left to go. Every position is proving vital to ensure the points gap between both teams is minimal.
Qualifying outside of the top 10 does provide a free choice of tyre strategy and Williams could use this to their advantage in the race. Bottas proved that anything is possible last week in Sepang with a one-stop strategy after failing to make Q3.
Massa added: “That wasn’t the qualifying we expected. I think the biggest surprise were the lap times from Haas. They qualified in front of both us and Force India in Q2. We are one-tenth slower than the Force Indias like we were in Malaysia, but I’m surprised by Haas.
“It’s true that our lap times on the new tyres weren’t so great, so I’m a bit disappointed with that. The race tomorrow will be tough. It will be a very big fight. But we’ll try everything we can to have a strong race and hopefully score some good points.”
Having both Force India and Haas cars in front of both Williams drivers on the grid means the Grove-based team will have to come through the pack to keep Force India in their sights.
With unpredictable weather on the horizon, the team will be hoping it stays dry as their car hasn’t performed well in wet conditions in races gone by.
