Rain washes out ‘fantastic start‘ for Felipe Massa at British Grand Prix

Felipe Massa of Brazil and Williams drives ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Finland and Williams during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit on July 5, 2015 in Northampton, England. (Photo by CliShow more

Felipe Massa said the pace of the Williams car in wet conditions was not good enough after having to settle for fourth in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

The Brazilian had built up hopes that he could win his first race since 2008 when a rapid start had seen him springboard ahead of the two Mercedes-GP cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg into Turn 1.

But he was leapfrogged by Hamilton during the first round of pit stops and then was passed by Rosberg when rain began to fall at Silverstone.

But Massa missed out on the consolation of even a podium finish as he struggled in the wet conditions and finished behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, who benefited from making an earlier change to intermediate tyres to move ahead of the Brazilian when he pitted.

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“It is a frustrating result because the race was amazing today,” Massa said of his fourth-place finish.

“I had a fantastic start and we were fighting with Mercedes the whole time, it could even have been possible to win the race if it had stayed dry, which is great to see.

“It was a shame to lose positions in the rain. We waited one lap longer on the second stop which is where we lost the opportunity to be on the podium. That shower also highlighted the car’s weakness in the wet.”

Massa had been challenged heavily by teammate Valtteri Bottas in the opening laps as they ran first and second, but, like Massa, the Finn’s afternoon came unstuck when the wet weather arrived.

He finished fifth, more than a minute behind race winner Hamilton, having been ahead of him after 20 of the 52 laps.

“Both cars had great starts and we raced the Mercedes with genuine pace, but when the rain came I really struggled with the intermediate tyre,” Bottas said.

“I was allowed to race Felipe, but it was hard to get through and I didn’t want to make any mistakes. We have to have a look the race data and make sure we continue to learn from this.”

The win drought for Williams, who have 114 victories to their name, but have not had a win since May 2012, goes on, but Rob Smedley, the British team’s head of performance engineering, felt they could still take encouragement from the race despite no podium finish.

“The pace we showed throughout this weekend was great, we had a stunning race up until the rain came,” he said.

“We raced two cars against both Mercedes for a majority of the race which shows the hard work and upgrades we are bringing to the car are all working.”

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