Felipe Massa put in an impressive final run in Q3 which delivered a third place on tomorrow's grid, alongside his team mate Valterri Bottas.
While most drivers failed to improve on their second run in the dying minutes of qualifying, the Brazilian succeeded in going faster, locking out the second row for Williams and keeping both Ferraris at bay.
"I think it was a fantastic day for us," Massa said. "It's also our home Grand Prix for the team, so it was great to see Valterri and me third and fourth, fighting each other through qualifying, especially in Q3."
Many drivers struggled with Silverstone's gusty crosswinds which through a few cars offline, mainly on the exit of Copse where drivers caught with all four wheels over the white line had their lap time discarded. Fortunately, Massa kept away from the trap.
"It's a corner where you want to try everything you can," commented Massa. "I was very careful in the beginning but then started to push a little bit harder to understand where the limit was. I managed to do a good job and not pass over the white line there."
Lately, Williams had appeared to lose a little ground over the Scuderia, and the team's pace on Friday seemed to confirm its relative lower performance compared to the Italian outfit. But in qualifying, the British team delivered the goods and regained an edge.
"We just managed to get a fantastic lap at the end and improve a little bit. We're really looking to having a strong race tomorrow, especially with this fight with Ferrari. So itwas important to show that we can be in front of them with both cars. I hope it will be the same tomorrow. I'm very happy with what we did today and we need to concentrate on tomorrow."
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