Massa and Bottas score big for Williams Martini Racing in Shanghai

(Williams Martini Racing Team)

The Williams Martini Racing Team duo of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit in fifth and sixth place respectively.

Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas started the race from 4^th and 5^th place respectively however much to the delight of Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene, Kimi Raikkonen who started the race from 6^th place got past both Williams cars at the start and stayed ahead of the Grove based outfit for the entire race.

Following the race Felipe Massa stated:

‘We had a good race today and I managed to get the most out of the car. The team performed very well but we just don’t have the raw speed to catch the cars in front. I will work on my start as that is really the only thing that went wrong for us. We have scored the most amount of points available to us today. ‘

Massa is now 21 points behind third placed Nico Rosberg and just six points ahead of former Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Following his sixth place finish and having missed the opening race of the season in Melbourne Australia, Valtteri Bottas is in 6^th place on 18 points. Speaking following today’s Chinese Grand Prix the Finn stated:

‘It was a lonely race for me today. I struggled for race pace throughout, but as a team we got the best result we could have achieved. I would have liked to have kept Kimi behind for longer after getting in front of him at the start, but he made a good move on me to retake the position. There is quite a bit of work to do to catch the cars ahead, but it's only race three, so there is plenty of time.’

The Grove based outfit are currently in third place in the championship on 48 points, 31 behind Scuderia Ferrari. Speaking following the race Williams Martini Racing Team’s Head of Performance Engineering Rob Smedley stated:

‘The team did a great job and maximised the performance of car. Fifth and sixth is accurate of the pace we had today. The pitstops were excellent and our race strategy was very good. We just need to continue working on the pace of the car.’

© Ben Johnston 2015