After missing his final scheduled test day of the first test following team-mate Lance Stroll’s crash, Felipe Massa completed 168 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday to try and recover some of the time lost.
The Williams Martini Racing driver also set the best time of the day with a 1:19.726, which was not far off the overall fastest time set during the first test by his former team-mate and current Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver Valtteri Bottas.
“It was a very long day but it was definitely a great one for the team,” reflected Massa. “We managed to do 168 laps so for the car, the team, and the reliability, it was definitely a great day.
“We did everything we were supposed to do. It’s always nice when you finish a day of testing and you’ve done everything that you planned to do, including completing a race distance. Our lap times were also competitive, which is always a good feeling.”
Massa felt it was a positive day in Spain, and was pleased to find himself setting competitive-looking lap times, although it is still early days.
“We’re still at the beginning of the year and there’s so many things to do and to understand, to figure out where we are compared to the others, but it’s definitely a very positive day,” said Massa.
“I’m happy with all of the laps that I did and the job that the whole team did today was great.”
