Felipe Massa: "It was like driving on ice"

  • Published on 10 Apr 2017 11:41
  • comments 1
  • By: Fergal Walsh

Felipe Massa is keen to forget a torrid Chinese Grand Prix, as the Brazilian didn't have any pace to make progress in the race. His day was the sole opposite to qualifying, where he set the sixth fastest lap time.

However, in the race, Massa finished in 15th or second to last if you are considering the drivers that retired from the race. Massa failed to gain any temperature in the Pirelli tyres and said it was like "driving on ice".

"I'm really disappointed as everything went wrong for us," said Massa. "I had too much wheelspin at the start, and then behind the Safety Car we had five slow laps on the dry tyres, so they were completely cold.

"I wasn't able to drive in the proper way because it felt like I was driving on ice. That was the worst part; we lost so much time and so many positions. Then we tried to risk stopping before the others to see if we could pass people and keep up the pace, but I couldn't."

Cheif Technical Officer Paddy Lowe says that it was a very painful afternoon, but looking back in hindsight, they could have done things differently to achieve better results: "It was an incredibly painful afternoon and he was lacking in grip throughout," said Lowe.

"There are lots of things we would have done differently with hindsight. I think everyone was planning on a one-stop race with dry tyres but almost the entire field needed to do an extra stop.

"Unfortunately, we just weren't able to show the real pace of the car, so there's a lot of work and analysis we need to do back at base in order to come back stronger in future."

 

Fergal Walsh

 

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  • Too bad, China was a great chance for Williams to get good points.

    • + 0
    • Apr 10 2017 - 12:59

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