The Williams Martini Racing team had a disappointing weekend at Circuit of The Americas with both drivers retiring from the Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas suffered contact at the first corner leading to a pit stop for a new front wing, with the Finn gambling on a switch to dry tyres. Shortly after, Bottas retired with a re-occurrence of the suspension issue that affected him during qualifying.
“It’s just not my day. I think that really sums it up. Two technical failures in the same day and it was the suspension failure that ended my race,” said the Finn. “The race didn’t start that well, there was damage to my front wing after lap one so I had to pit for that.
“We had to make a call to go to intermediates or risk the slicks. We tried the slicks, which was guided by me, I thought it could be possible. But it was the wrong call and we lost a lot of time there.
“In the end none of that matters because of the technical failure so there was no possibility for a result today, unfortunately.”
Felipe Massa also suffered contact at the first corner but was able to fight his way up the grid to 10th but on lap 24 he was forced to retire with a similar suspension failure.
“It was a disappointing race. The first corner was very difficult with many things happening,” said Massa. “I was involved in an accident which damaged the right side of my car.
“I carried on and was catching the cars in front but we had a problem with the damper so we had to stop. It’s not a nice weekend for all of us, so we need to concentrate on the next one.”
This double retirement is the team’s first since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012.
