Williams Martini Racing driver Felipe Massa feels the FIA was incorrect to keep Q2 going at Circuit of The Americas for the full 15 minutes, insisting that the race should not go ahead in the same weather conditions.
With Q3 being cancelled due to extreme weather conditions, the grid will be formed from times set in Q2. Massa went 9th quickest and will move up to 7th for the race with the Scuderia Ferrari duo, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, acquiring penalties.
The Brazilian was not happy with the fact that the FIA did not red flag the session earlier.
“Q2 was too dangerous,” said Massa. “I almost spun many times and it was so easy to crash. Definitely they took a bit too much risk.
“I was already saying yesterday that I don’t understand why they didn’t put the red flag out in practice, it was impossible to drive at the end.
“One of the biggest challenges of the race will be to finish, that’s the first job, then we can look for points.”
Valtteri Bottas had qualified in 12th behind his Williams team-mate in Q2 and would have started from 10th following the penalties of Ferrari.
But due to suffering a suspension problem during qualifying a change of gearbox is required for the fix, with Bottas now set to start the race from 15th position, just behind Vettel.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t make it to Q3,” said the Finn. “I just couldn’t find the same amount of grip that I had in Q1, so in Q2 I struggled a bit more with traction.
“I had a rear suspension failure at the end of Q2. It’s just something that broke suddenly, I think we can fix it.
“The race is very soon now so that’s the only opportunity to make the best we can from here.”
