German GP: Williams Martini Race Review
By Williams Martini Racing
August 1 2016
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Williams Martini
German GP Race Review |
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Race Notes
• Valtteri Bottas finished 9th whilst Felipe Massa retired from the
German Grand Prix
• Felipe started P10 but was clipped on the opening lap by Palmer’s
Renault which affected the car’s pace. The issue couldn’t be identified
or resolved during the race, therefore he was forced to retire on lap
36.
• As a result of Hulkenberg’s one-place grid penalty, Valtteri started
today’s race from P7 on the supersoft tyre. He moved up to P5 in the
early stages of the race, benefitting from his competitors pitting,
before dropping back to P7 ahead of Hulkenberg. Following Hulkenberg’s
final stop Valtteri was 15 seconds clear of the Force India but with
severely worn tyres Valtteri wasn’t able to hold onto the position and
fell to P9, ahead of Perez, in the closing stages of the race
• Both drivers retain their position in the Drivers’ Championships with
Valtteri in seventh and Felipe in ninth, while the team stays fourth in
the Constructors’ Championship, 15 points clear of nearest rivals Force
India. |
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Felipe Massa:
"It’s such a shame that someone hit my rear right tyre on the first
lap because it felt like something definitely happened to that area of
the car. Perhaps a toe issue or something, because the car felt
undriveable. Although I tried to carry on with the race, I was suffering
massively. The pace was just so slow to the point where it was better to
retire than carry on. Now, I’m going to take the summer break as an
opportunity to relax with my family and prepare for the second half of
the season to make it much better than the first half." |
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Valtteri Bottas:
"The race was going OK until Force India managed to get in front of
us with the undercut. They did a three-stop and we tried a two-stop.
There was definitely something wrong with our tyre calculations, because
there was no way to get to the end on that set of tyres. The stint was
just way too long and that really cost us some points today." |
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Rob Smedley, Head of Vehicle
Performance:
"Felipe was hit in the rear in Turn 6 on lap one and there wasn’t a
great deal we could do from then on. We were trying to understand what
the problem was as Felipe was completely off the pace and complaining
about the car. There was no alternative other than to retire because he
was towards the back of the field and struggling. With Valtteri, we
tried a strategy which clearly didn’t work. We deployed the wrong
tactics in the race, which is something we’ve got to learn from. As a
group of people, we get it right most of the time, but today we didn’t.
We thought the tyres would go to the end but they didn’t and so ninth
was the best we could achieve, unfortunately. It hasn’t been a great day
but this is where we see the mettle of everyone moving forward and make
sure we don’t let our heads go down. We’ll carry on improving and trying
to do the absolute maximum that we can do with the car that we’ve got.
We’ll keep pushing on." |
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Track Hockenheimring, Germany
Lap Length 4.574 km / 2.84 miles |
Weather: Warm and dry
Air 24-25°C Track: 37-42°C |
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POS |
DRIVER |
TEAM |
Time/Gap (Fastest Lap) |
Grid |
1 |
L Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1:30.44.200 (1:18.746) |
2 |
2 |
N Rosberg |
Mercedes |
+ 6.996 (1:18.442) |
3 |
3 |
M Verstappen |
Red Bull |
+ 13.413 (1:18.910) |
4 |
9 |
F MASSA |
Williams Martini Racing |
+ 1 lap (1.20.442) |
7 |
DNF |
V BOTTAS |
Williams Martini Racing |
DNF |
10 |
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