(Williams Martini Racing Team)
The Williams Martini Racing Team showed that they were best of the rest behind the Mercedes AMG F1 Team in qualifying for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at the Monza circuit after Valtteri Bottas set the third fastest time of the afternoon with a 1m 24.697s ending the session 0.588s behind pole sitter Lewis Hamilton. Speaking following the session Bottas commented:
'To have both cars on the second row is a good starting point for the race. I am really happy with the qualifying lap and the car is set-up for the race so I am confident we can push the Mercedes, it’s just a question of how much can we push them. If we have a great start it could open a lot of opportunities, and the pitstop lap could be critical depending on our strategy. If anything happens with the cars just in front of us, we will be there to collect those points.'
Felipe Massa, who is driving at the Monza circuit for the first time since he was a Ferrari driver set the fourth fastest time in the second FW36 as the Grove based outfit hope to overhaul Ferrari in the Constructors championship in their own back garden. Speaking following the session the Brazilian said:
'It was a good qualifying for me and for the team. I was missing just that little bit extra to get third. We aren’t too far off the Mercedes and I think everyone should be happy with the result. It’s a long race and we have good long run pace so who knows what will happen. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a good weekend. I am really going to give everything I can to get on that podium, especially as it’s such a great podium.'
The Grove based outfit are currently in fourth place in the Constructors championship just ten points behind Ferrari and have out-qualified both Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. Alonso will start the race from 7th place while Raikkonen will start the race eleventh place.
Speaking about tomorrow's race Williams Martini Racing's Head of Performance Engineering Rob Smedley commented by saying:
'That’s the first step to a great haul of points for the weekend. We are where we should be, but it’s not easy to meet those expectations and so everyone should be very happy. Both car crews and everyone supporting the team have worked very hard to get this result. The advantage the power unit gives is phenomenal around here and we are confident with our race pace as well. Our objective is to outscore those around us in the championship and we have set ourselves a good basis for that. '
Bottas feels that the team are in the best possible position to challenge Mercedes for the race win tomorrow. Massa will also be hoping that he'll be in a position to score his first podium finish for the Williams Martini Racing Team which would be huge if he could do it at Ferrari's home race.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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