Williams regains fourth place in the Constructors’ standings
Even if Bottas' reactions reflected a slight disappointment at not having been able to hold on to fifth place at the finish, the Williams team was satisfied to have recovered fourth place in the constructors' overall standings from Force India. Felipe Massa also played his part in the Italian collective result, adding two more points.
Among the surprises of the qualifying session, Valtteri Bottas had the luxury of edging out the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Verstappen. From his fifth place, would the Finnish driver from Williams at least hold onto this impressive position?
After also overtaking Hamilton at the start, Bottas dropped to fifth position on the 11th lap, having nonetheless valiantly resisted the Mercedes of the reigning champion! On a two-stop strategy, he was only overtaken again on the 47th lap, by Daniel Ricciardo.
Visibly, the native of Nastola was almost disappointed with his result, as he aimed even higher: « Personally, I expected even more from this race. I had set a goal to finish on the podium, but we didn’t have the expected pace. I had to push a bit more than planned on each of my stints to secure my place. »
With this sixth place, Bottas has returned to good standards in terms of results, having not finished this high since the European Grand Prix in Baku, mid-June. He thus remains seventh in the overall driver standings with a total of 70 points.
For what was the next retiree from the track, Felipe Massa completed 53 laps behind his teammate, continuing a rather lackluster qualifying session (only 11th). However, his start was excellent, gaining three places in one lap: « Our race pace was not optimal today, but we still leave Monza with a positive result for the team, reclaiming fourth place in the constructors’ standings. It gives us a bit more confidence and shows us that we can keep this position if we put things in order. »
Like Bottas, the option tires were the bone of contention in his race: « I think it was a good race, except for the fact that I didn’t have the expected pace with the soft tires. My race really started with my super-soft tires. My pace was then very good. »
For Rob Smedley, the result achieved by Williams over the weekend is indeed within the set expectations. Williams regains its fourth place in the constructors’ standings, three points ahead of Force India: « We stopped Valtteri a little too early in the race. Ricciardo passed him at the end; he was faster the whole race anyway. It would have been nice to finish fifth, but we didn’t have the speed of the Red Bulls. »
Similarly, the team had to revise its strategy during the Grand Prix to cope with events: « With Felipe, we wanted a one-stop race; but he had to stop earlier than planned to get ahead of Hülkenberg. Then, we kept him longer on track than expected in the second stint to be able to chase Perez at the end of the race. The last set of tires was better than hoped, with an extra lap in this race, we could have gained another position. Overall, in terms of strategy and management, we succeeded in our race. It’s satisfying to regain that fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship! »
No doubt that Sir Frank Williams’ team will have their work cut out in Singapore in two weeks. Even though the Grove car always struggles more on street circuits, it will be a matter of repeating Bottas’s fine performance, who secured a fifth place in the city-state in 2015.
