With a team that has been used to qualifying inside the top six in recent times, it was a very disappointing and under whelming session for the Williams Martini Racing team in Monaco, with neither Felipe Massa nor Valtteri Bottas making it into the top ten shoot out; Massa will start twelfth and Bottas sixteenth.
Despite his lowly grid slot, Massa revealed that he didn’t have any major issues during qualifying, but the car just does not suit the track. He knows the race is long, and believes if he can remain focused, he could make it into the points.
“There were no major issues during qualifying that caused us to be out of position; Monaco just isn’t a circuit that suits the characteristics of our car,” reflected Massa.
“We struggled throughout the day and found it hard to set the lap times we wanted. Tomorrow won’t be easy, but anything is possible due to the nature of the track.
“It’s not a great result as we have become used to qualifying higher, but I’m confident we can still get points and that must be our focus.”
Team-mate Bottas was the most high-profile casualty of the first qualifying session, and will line-up a disappointing sixteenth. He admitted he and the team have been struggling throughout the weekend but like his team-mate still believes he can score points on Sunday.
“I had some traffic on my initial option run and couldn’t go at the sort of pace needed to keep the tyre temperatures correct, and on my timed lap I just lacked overall grip throughout the lap,” revealed Bottas.
“We knew this track was not going to suit our car and we’ve been struggling to get the tyres to work throughout the weekend. Then again this is the sort of track where lots of things can happen and if we stay out of trouble and finish the race then points are still possible.”
