Felipe Massa could not repeat his exploits from one year ago in Austria when he took pole position, but the Williams Martini Racing driver qualified inside the top four, beaten only by the dominant Mercedes duo and Sebastian Vettel.
The Brazilian veteran driver set a lap time of 1m09.192s during qualifying, 0.737s back on the pole time of Lewis Hamilton, but felt he could have been quicker but for a mistake on his final attempt, however he felt it was unlikely to move him any further up the Red Bull Ring grid.
“My best lap could have been quicker,” revealed Massa. “I made a mistake and also the tyres would have been quicker for our final attempt, plus we would have had less fuel.
“That’s not to say we would have been higher than P4 though, and these things happen in qualifying.”
Massa feels the long run pace of his Williams FW37 is strong in Austria, and he hopes that it remains so for the race on Sunday.
“The conditions were good, so we hope it stays like that for the race tomorrow,” said Massa. “Our long run pace looks strong and that could be key.”
