Massa adamant Williams can fight Ferrari
Williams' performance in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix has fuelled Felipe Massa's belief that the team is still very much on par with Ferrari, despite having been largely outperformed during the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Felipe Massa qualified fourth and Valtteri Bottas fifth for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix, splitting the Ferrari's on the starting grid.
Massa is sure this is proof of Williams' capability to fight Ferrari on equal footing.
"I am really happy with my lap", the Brazilian said.
"I managed to get the best out of the car and showed we are still in the fight with Ferrari. The car has improved throughout the weekend and we had the set-up correct for qualifying. Tomorrow is when it really counts so I hope we can have a strong race and get the most points on offer from the car.
Team mate Valtteri Bottas showed less optimistic, noting that the team's issues experienced up until FP3 may not have been resolved completely.
"It was quite a close qualifying, although I suffered with the rear of the car throughout the final session, which made it a bit harder. We know we need to work on our race pace, but we should be closer than we were in the first two races. The cars in front look strong so we have to concentrate on tyre degradation."
