The Williams Martini Racing team took a good haul of points away from the Hungaroring but saw their podium run come to an end in the changeable weather conditions. Felipe Massa ended his run of bad luck to take fifth place, while Valterri Bottas was eighth despite running second in the early laps.
Massa took fifth, and was as high as second before the pit strategy played out, and he held off the challenge of Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari until the flag. He was happy with his result after admitting it was a tough race with the changeable conditions.
“It was a very difficult race with a lot happening,” said Massa. “We had many fights and it was difficult to stay on the track. We took some risks with the tyres in the pit stops and in the end it was a good result.
“Now we can look forward to the second part of the season and I’m sure we will score a lot more points than we’ve scored up until now.”
Team-mate Bottas was eighth despite running in the top two before the safety car to clear Marcus Ericsson’s stricken Caterham, but he was caught out by the safety car and fell to eleventh, and never truly recovered. He closed on Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull in the final stint but missed out on seventh by four tenths of a second.
“After three podiums in a row P8 is not that satisfying, but we got some good points as a team,” admitted Bottas. “There was more to come today but we were unlucky with the safety car when I went from P2 to out of the top 10.
“We need to analyse this race then focus on the next one. There are many more good moments for us to come this season; we are getting stronger.”
Head of Performance Engineering Rob Smedley was happy to get both drivers in the points, as it meant they extended their Constructor’s championship gap to both McLaren and Force India.
“We’ve been used to racing for podiums lately, so today was a bit different,” said Smedley. “The pace of the car wasn’t fantastic, which we can accept on a tight and twisty track like this. We did what we could; we got two cars home in the points and pulled away from McLaren and Force India in the championship.
“We’re happy with fourth in the Constructors’ going into the break and we’ve got some good races coming up, so we will come back eager for more podiums at Spa and Monza.”
