Williams is content as both cars got into Q3

Williams Martini Team ended the qualifying session for the German GP with a strong performance as both its cars managed to get into Q3. Valtteri Bottas finished eighth, Felipe Massa tenth in the pretty close fight of the afternoon.

The Grove-based squad had a massive drop in performance over the last couple of races. However, it could capitalize on the track characteristics of the Hockenheimring as the long full-throttle sections and hard accelerating zones favour its Mercedes power unit.

Valtteri Bottas posted competitive times in all qualifying segments and went on to claim eighth place for tomorrow’s race.

“It was a very consistent qualifying session from us as a team. It was a very close session, as expected, but the balance of the car felt good and we managed to get the tyres to work better.”

Bottas acknowledged that the cars in front of him were out of reach as he squeezed out everything of his car bar a few hundredths.

“We are missing a bit of grip compared to the cars in front so I think we more or less got the maximum from the car today.”

“I had some traffic in the last sector on my Q3 run which cost me a few hundredths, so I could have been seventh, but apart from that I’m pretty pleased with my qualifying today,” added the former GP3 champion.

Williams’ Brazilian driver Felipe Massa has been fighting with the car’s balance, but he found a better set up for the qualifying session. It allowed him to drive more comfortable.

"I’d say it was a very competitive qualifying today, especially with Force India. We are constantly fighting for a tenth.”

The 35-year old Sao-Paolo-born driver was delighted with his lap, but conceded he made a slight mistake coming into turn 12.

“I was very happy with my lap; but I just went into the turn too much at corner 12 and I lost time on my lap because of that.”

“That’s the only thing that happened or else I’d have easily been one tenth quicker. So that’s a shame, but I will try even harder for the team tomorrow.”