Valtteri Bottas felt his Williams Martini Racing team had done a strong job during Saturday’s running as the Finn was able to qualify an excellent third on the grid for the Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom.
Bottas was able to out-qualify both Scuderia Ferrari drivers during qualifying, ending up as the best of the rest behind the dominant Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team and feels he is in a good position to have a good race on Sunday.
“It was a strong job by the team today – we managed to set-up the car well and maximise our performance,” said Bottas.
“I felt very good in the car all day and managed to get in a rhythm quickly and put in consistent lap times despite the limited number of laps we had completed in practice.
“Tomorrow is where it really matters but I have put myself in a very good position to capitalise.”
Team-mate Felipe Massa had a less than impressive day after qualifying down in fifteenth position, the second year in a row he struggled during the qualifying session, with the Brazilian bemoaning mistakes and traffic for his lowly grid slot.
“I made a mistake at turn eight in my first timed lap in Q2, and then in my final two attempts I came up against a lot of traffic which lost me a lot of time,” revealed Massa.
“On my final run my tyres were gone at the rear and that was the end of my chances. It’s a shame and I’m very disappointed, but I have a quick car around here so we need to have a good strategy and use our pace to move up into the points tomorrow.”