F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Sixth in Bahrain 'feels like a victory' to Massa

Felipe Massa was upbeat after a strong race for Williams under the floodlights in Bahrain on Sunday.

Starting from eighth place he managed to make up several positions at the start. Massa particularly enjoyed fighting wheel-to-wheel with the bigger teams on the grid.

"I started eighth, so actually sixth was great result in the end," he said after the race. "To be honest my position today is like a victory. I finished in the best position I could."

Massa added that he hoped his performance in Bahrain had made a good birthday present for the team's founder, Sir Frank Williams

"It's Frank's birthday. I'm sure he deserves a victory, but today is a like victory so I'm sure he's happy and proud of his team."

Massa's best laps of the evening came at the start of the race.

"I managed to pass [Nico] Hulkenberg at the start and Kimi [Raikkonen] on the first lap at turn 4, which was pretty difficult. Then I passed Daniel [Ricciardo] after the safety car.

"We were fighting with the big teams today!

"Unfortunately after some laps they managed to keep their tyres in a much better way than we do. And they have a better car, so it's difficult to keep them behind."

Massa added that tyre pressures continued to be a weak point for Williams. However he was happier with how he'd managed the issue this weekend.

"I managed to keep the tyres in the right way. But the problem is that you have all the cars that have a lot more downforce. They manage to keep their tyres in the right way because of the car they have.

"You can see how much Ferrari finish in front of us shows the difference in terms of cars. But I think we managed to do a better job on pressure than all the teams behind."

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Bahrain

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Sebastian Montoya steps up to Formula 2 with Prema

Sebastian Montoya, the 19-year-old son of former Formula 1 star Juan Pablo Montoya, is set…

9 hours ago

Sauber finds its ‘Northern Star’ under Binotto’s leadership

When former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto took on the role of Chief Operating Officer…

11 hours ago

Leclerc hails a season ‘without missed opportunities' in 2024

Charles Leclerc concluded the 2024 F1 season with a sense of satisfaction, the Ferrari driver…

12 hours ago

Coulthard sounds alarm over FIA president’s rift with F1 drivers

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has voiced his dismay at FIA president Mohammed Ben…

14 hours ago

The rapid rise and fall of Super Aguri in F1

Super Aguri's application to join Formula 1 became a reality on this day in 2005,…

15 hours ago

Ferrari's 2024 Season: Marked improvement and a fight to the finish

Ferrari roared back into contention in 2024 to deliver their strongest season in years, thanks…

16 hours ago