Felipe Massa was able to make the most of the pace advantage of his Mercedes-powered Williams Martini Racing FW37 during the Canadian Grand Prix to climb from a lowly grid position following power issues during qualifying to finish a creditable sixth at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The veteran Brazilian was happy with his performance, making a number of positive overtaking manoeuvres, ultimately moving into the top six by passing Pastor Maldonado in the closing laps.
He was also happy to have made a one-stop strategy work in his favour, but felt he could have been challenging for the podium had he not had his issues in qualifying.
“After a challenging qualifying for me yesterday I’m happy with how the race has gone and I’ve picked up some good points,” said Massa. “Starting P15 was always going to lead to a busy race and there was a lot of great overtaking and the car had good consistent pace.
“We managed to have a one stop race and still keep the pace with the option tyre at the end which was fantastic.
“With the car I had today I could have been fighting for podiums, but all in all this has been a very positive weekend for the team and we should be very competitive in the next few races, especially with some upgrades planned for the car.”
