Felipe Massa continued his strong start to the 2017 Formula 1 season during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix as the veteran Brazilian finished the session sixth fastest.
A last minute improvement by the Williams Martini Racing driver moved him up ahead of Nico Hülkenberg’s Renault, and he feels that sixth was possibly the best result he could have hoped for such is the strength of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in comparison.
Massa is now hopeful to turn the strong qualifying effort into a positive race result as he aims to build on the sixth place finish he achieved last time out in Australia.
“I think it was a very good qualifying session for us,” admitted Massa. “I’m happy with my performance, with my lap and with the balance of the car. We were able to get ahead of Hulkenberg right at the end, so I think we did the best we could today.
“We need to be completely open minded for tomorrow because there may be crazy weather and there may be rain. But hopefully we can fight and have a good performance like we did in Australia.”
