Japanese GP: Disappointing qualifying for Williams Martini

Qualifying Notes
• Valtteri Bottas qualified 11th and Felipe Massa 12th for the Japanese Grand Prix
• Both cars progressed from Q1 into Q2 after two runs on the soft tyre, with Valtteri
advancing in P5 and Felipe making it through in P10 after their second runs
• Valtteri and Felipe only had one run in Q2 on the soft tyre. Both of their lap times were provisionally good enough to progress to Q3 but as others followed them across the line on an improving track, Valtteri and Felipe fell to P11 and P12.

Felipe Massa:
"That wasn’t the qualifying we expected. I think the biggest surprise were the lap times from Haas. They qualified in front of both us and Force India in Q2. We are one tenth slower than the Force India's, like we were in Malaysia, but I’m surprised by Haas. It’s true that
our lap times on the new tyres wasn’t so great, so I’m a bit disappointed with that. The race tomorrow will be tough. It will be a very big fight. But we’ll try  everything we can to have a strong race and hopefully score some good points. All we can do is try."

Valtteri Bottas:
"Looking at our qualifying performance here from the past few years it’s disappointing not to be in Q3. We just weren’t quick enough today. I had a little bit of traffic in Q2, but the speed just wasn’t there. The positive thing from today is that we have a free choice of tyres for the race. We have the same opportunity that we had in Malaysia to do something different with the strategy, hopefully we can make good use of that."

Rob Smedley, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"It’s disappointing to be 11th and 12th and not make it through to Q3. However, what we can see is that our drivers are evenly matched
and we’ve got most of what we could have out of today. The car just wasn’t quick enough. It’s going to be more about the race around here and we can definitely have a good strategy from where we are. We’ve got the car set up with a good compromise for all conditions, so whatever the weather brings we will be prepared. We’ve got to look forward now and get as many points as we can tomorrow."

Track Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka
Lap Length 5.807 km / 3.608 miles

Weather: Warm and dry
Air 23-24°C Track 26-28°C

POS

DRIVER

TEAM

Q1

Q2