(Williams Martini Racing Team)
The Williams Martini Racing Team continued they march forward on Saturday in a wet qualifying session for tomorrows Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas qualified the FW36 in 6th and 7th place respectively which is a fantastic result for the Grove based team considering where the team were at this stage of the season last year.
The team have scored point's in every race so far this season and are currently in 6th place in the Constructors championship on 30 point's just three behind Ferrari. Speaking after today's qualifying session Valtteri Bottas said:
'The conditions were consistent. Sometimes it was better on the Wets [compared to Intermediates] but overall it was straightforward, I'm happy that we've made progress in the wet. We're expecting to fight for a little bit better positions tomorrow.'
Felipe Massa did a great job for the Grove based squad and secured another top ten starting position. The Brazilian, who finished the Bahrain Grand Prix two week's ago in 7th place just ahead of team mate Valtteri Bottas in in 8th place. Speaking to the media following qualifying Massa said:
'It was surprising in a way, but we made some steps with the car. We have new pieces and it shows that the car has good potential. I'm happy with qualifying so hopefully tomorrow can have a good race.'
He went on to say:
'Maybe we can fight for a better result than today during the race. Red Bull is there, Mercedes is there and Ferrari is around so it won't be easy, but we need to fight.'
The Williams certainly has the pace to allow Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas to compete with the frontrunners as Bottas has shown previously when he qualified in third place for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The team just need to find a way of converting their qualifying pace into race pace and this is one of the reasons why Rob Smedley has joined the team to help them unlock the best performance from the car.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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