Williams
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: “We came here with a certain car philosophy and we’re happy with the way things have gone. We’ve run on both fuel levels and we’re quite competitive – certainly back to a much more normal position for us. We’ve gone through our work diligently in terms of tyre and brake management, which are the two things an order of magnitude more important than anything else on this track. Off the back of a difficult Monaco, we’re in shape to have a good weekend here.”
Valtteri Bottas: “The rain compromised FP2 for everyone but we knew it was coming so we were able to do a little bit of work at the end of FP1 that we would normally do in FP2. I did a longer run with higher fuel so we got some information on brake, engine and tyre temperatures, and car balance. Today we were as competitive as we have been on any Friday this year, so we should be looking at least at the same kind of performance as in Barcelona. Qualifying can be very close here, even if you get everything right, so we need to make sure we find everything there is to find.”
Felipe Massa: “We missed a bit of FP2 because of the rain, but before that the car behaved well and I had a good feeling for the balance straight away. The grip level from the track was very low, but that’s the same for everybody. This is definitely a better track for us than Monaco. Tomorrow morning will be even more important after the rain today, so we need to understand a lot in FP3 to prepare the car for qualifying.”
