5th and 6th 'not a fantastic day' for Williams
Williams finished 5th and 6th in today's Malaysian Grand Prix, a result in line with the car's current performance. Head of Performance engineering at Williams, Rob Smedley, immediately acknowledged the race highlighted some weak points of the FW37.
After a poor start Valtteri benefited from an early safety car, as did Felipe, who at one stage was running in fourth position.
A recovering Kimi Raikkonen jumped both drivers at the final of three pitstops as Felipe and Valtteri raced wheel-to-wheel to the end, swapping positions on the final lap
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: "It was a good team performance and we finished with the maximum points on offer considering the pace of the car. It was a tough race in the heat but we have highlighted some areas of the package that we need to improve. We made a good recovery from a difficult Saturday and it was good to have both cars racing each other at the end."
Valtteri Bottas, 5th: "It was a nice race in the end. I was always in the wrong place at the start and lost a lot of time and positions. I made the most of the performance of the car and it was great to be able to race Felipe at the end. We know we have some work to do, we need to learn from our mistakes and keep progressing. We have some upgrades that are due shortly which will hopefully be a further step in the right direction."
Felipe Massa, 6th: "I don’t think we had a fantastic day today. We had a small problem in the pitstop which lost a little time. Valtteri was able to catch me in the final few laps, but it was good to race wheel-to-wheel. We have got the best points we could for the team given the where the car is at the moment."
