Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were keen to take the positives from Malaysia after finishing seventh and eighth respectively. Much of the post-race discussion centred on Massa’s apparent refusal to follow team orders but the Brazilian didn’t think Sepang was the team’s strongest circuit either way and thought the overall result was positive.
“Getting both cars in the points today is a positive result for the team. I had a very good start and made up some good places on the first lap, but my progress was halted a bit by the McLaren of Magnussen in the first stint which had good traction out of the last corner which made it difficult for me to overtake. I also had the same issue later on in the race with Jenson as I was able to get up close to the back of him in the closing stages when on better tyres, but just couldn’t get passed. On the whole I don’t think this track particularly suited our car, so we have done well to finish where we have, and I’m confident that we will be more competitive in Bahrain.”
Bottas produced another fine recovery drive after his qualifying penalty and the Finn is looking forward to seeing what is possible when he starts further forward.
“I think we need to be happy about today as moving from P18 to P8 is a good result and we have more points in the bag. The car was not as competitive this weekend as it was in Melbourne, but the team has done a very good in producing a car that is looking like it can consistently fight in the top ten. I had a really good start, making up six places on the first lap, and from then on the pace was pretty good and I was able to make up more places without too much trouble by using our very strong straight line speed on the long straights. Qualifying has shown that there are parts of the car we need to address, but the start to the season has been encouraging for us so far.”
