By Williams Martini Racing
April 7 2014
Williams Martini Bahrain GP Race Review |
Race Notes • Felipe Massa finished seventh and Valtteri Bottas eighth in the first night race to be held in Bahrain, bringing home another 10 points for the team. • Felipe made a great start to fight his way into third whilst Valtteri suffered wheelspin at the start and dropped from third position to fifth. • With the fight on for third, Felipe and Valtteri withheld pressure from behind. • An unfortunately timed safety car dropped both drivers back behind the two Force India's, both Red Bulls and Jenson Button’s McLaren. • Both cars were racing hard on fresher tyres in the closing stages and were quicker than Vettel, but were unable to pass |
Felipe Massa:
"The start was fantastic, I did everything right and I had good grip and it all went well. We were in a good position and fighting but sadly the tyre degradation was worse than we expected. The safety car didn’t help the strategy as I think we should have been up with the Force India's rather than behind the Red Bulls so that is a shame. Other than that it was a good race, with some good battles and to finish with both cars in the points is really positive." |
Valtteri Bottas: "After a poor start our race strategy was compromised. I had too much wheelspin and that lost me a few positions which is frustrating. We had issues with the tyres that were worse than expected but on a positive note we got some good points from both cars. We always want more though, so we will continue to work hard and look forward to the next race." |
Rob Smedley, Head of Vehicle
Performance: "Overall I am extremely happy. We finished the weekend with both cars in the points, and good points too. To start in third and finish in eighth for Valtteri is a bit frustrating, but that’s racing and we have to accept that. There are many positives still to take, one thing we do need is a little bit more race pace. The team worked very well together from strategy to pitstops, the change over the last twelve months has been very encouraging. There is still a lot of work to do but I’m very impressed with the quality of people here." |
Bahrain International Circuit,
Sakhir |
Weather: Dark and Mild | |||
POS |
DRIVER |
TEAM |
Time (Fastest Lap) |
Grid |
1 |
L Hamilton |
Mercedes | 1:39:42.743 (1:37.108, 2nd) |
2 |
2 |
N Rosberg | Mercedes |
1:39:43.828 (1:37.020 1st) |
1 |
3 |
S Perez | Force India |
1:40:06.810 (1:39.320 7th) |
4 |
7 |
F MASSA FW36-02, PU106A Hybrid |
Williams Martini Racing | 1:40:14.008 (1:39.272 5th) | 7 |
8 |
V BOTTAS FW36-01, PU106A Hybrid |
Williams Martini Racing | 1:40:14.619 (1.39.762 13th) | 3 |