Spanish GP Qualifying

Qualifying Notes

Valtteri Bottas qualified fourth and Felipe Massa ninth for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix, as Williams continues to qualify in the top ten.Continued hard work and improvement since the start of the season showed once again today, with the recent upgrades working well across both cars.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: I am very happy as the session went really well. The pace of the cars was excellent. It is a hot track that demands a lot of downforce and the upgrades we brought here have really helped that. The pieces we have brought have worked really well. Felipe has qualified out of position as he was very fast in Q1 and Q2 but didn’t quite get the best final lap. There is a lot of work to do for tomorrow, but we are looking positive and are after some good points.

Valtteri Bottas: It has been quite a tough weekend up until now. I had to build a lot of confidence but it all came together when it mattered and I managed to get a good lap. We have made some set-up changes since FP3 and they worked well but it will be even better in the race. It’s difficult to overtake here and so qualifying is important. It’s going to be a close race behind the Mercedes and so I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

Felipe Massa: I am disappointed with my lap today as I lost the rear in Turn 10 after braking, it’s nothing to do with the car, it was my mistake. I had been doing really well throughout the rest of the session so feel annoyed I didn’t do it when it really mattered. The race is long tomorrow and the car has good potential so we have a lot to do.