Felipe Massa savors his first podium of the season
Starting fourth in Austria, Felipe Massa managed to climb onto the podium, helped indeed by Sebastian Vettel's failed pit stop. Less fortunate, Valtteri Bottas, in 5th place, nevertheless experienced an eventful race.
Felipe Massa secured his first podium of the season this Sunday, after perfectly capitalizing on Sebastian Vettel’s overly long pit stop: « I am thrilled with the result, the team did an excellent job and it was a fantastic race. We maximized the slower stop from Ferrari and took advantage of all the opportunities that came our way to secure my first podium of the season, celebrated the Paulista.
In the last laps of the race, Felipe Massa had to fight against a vengeful Sebastian Vettel: « The team pushed me a lot during the last laps of the race, and I did my best to keep Vettel behind. I knew it wasn’t the time to make mistakes. »
Performance Director at Williams, Rod Smedley acknowledged that, on a regular basis, Vettel’s Ferrari was faster: “We have kept faster cars behind us three times already this season, which shows the very good job done by the drivers today. Felipe did a very good job under such pressure, and Valtteri drove a solid race with some very firm overtaking maneuvers.”
Indeed, the Finn, despite experiencing brake issues, had to battle hard, notably with Nico Hülkenberg, to bring home the ten points for 5th place: « It’s a good result for the team. I personally expected a bit more from the race. I really enjoyed the overtakes I made… it’s just a shame it wasn’t higher up in the standings. In the middle of the race, I had a brake problem, so I had to be a little careful » he revealed after the finish.
In the constructors’ standings, Williams has created a substantial gap of 74 points with Red Bull.
