Felipe Massa held off Hamilton at the end of the race
Williams did not suffer the same strategic setbacks as in Bahrain with Felipe Massa, who reached the finish in sixth position. Valtteri Bottas was in more difficulty and had to make do with a meagre point.
Felipe Massa once again outperformed Valtteri Bottas on a Grand Prix Sunday. The Brazilian even managed to fend off Lewis Hamilton in the final laps and probably couldn’t have hoped for better than this sixth place: « It was a good race. I spent the whole race fighting with other cars, and we executed our strategy well. It worried me, however, when the Safety Car came out because I wasn’t sure if it would work. But actually, after the Safety Car, the car’s pace was really good right away. So I managed to build a good gap with the other guys. We managed the tires perfectly today. I’m really, really happy with my performance. It was a very fun race » said a delighted Massa, also 6th in the world championship.
On the other hand, Valtteri Bottas had a much tougher time. The Finn only finished tenth, overtaken in the last moments of the race by the two Toro Rossos of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz: « It was a disappointing race. I was blocked at the start due to the accident between the Ferraris and lost many positions. The beginning of the race looked good, the pace was quite good on the soft tires, but once I switched to medium tires the pace was no longer there, and I struggled with grip in general. We need to check and see if everything was fine with the car, but it was a tough day today during the last stint. »
After the third race of the season, Williams has established itself as the fourth force in this championship, ahead of Toro Rosso but significantly behind Red Bull.
