Massa admits Williams' Bahrain strategy ‘did not work’

Felipe Massa was left frustrated with Williams’ strategy in the Bahrain Grand Prix after he dropped from second on the opening lap down to eighth at the chequered flag.

Lining up seventh on the Sakhir grid, Massa had a great start that propelled him up to P2 by the time he exited the first sequence of corners. The Brazilian could not resist Kimi Raikkonen’s recovery, but remained in podium contention until swapping his supersoft tyres for mediums.

While most front runners went for a three-stop strategy under the floodlights, Williams kept Massa on a two-stopper that eventually saw him being overhauled by drivers on fresher and softer rubber in the closing stages of the race.

“I was so happy after corner one, that I went from seventh to second,” the ex-Ferrari driver is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “And I'm so disappointed that I finished eighth in the race.

“Definitely our strategy didn't work, to go for two stops compared to all of the other teams.

“I'm disappointed, it was a race where we were supposed to score more points, it was a race to learn a little bit more about the front wing. I think we couldn't do any of them, so we scored little points.

“I think the race pace on the medium tyres was really disappointing compared to the race pace from the other cars. The first stint was OK, the supersoft feeling, but after not.”

Bahrain Grand Prix - Quotes of the weekend

DRIVER RATINGS: Bahrain Grand Prix

GALLERY: Sakhir podium

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