Williams has buffer to attack leaders - Massa

Felipe Massa says Williams has enough in hand over the likes of Force India and McLaren to be able to attack the teams at the front of the field in the Canadian Grand Prix.

Williams locked out the fourth row in qualifying, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull ahead and Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso directly behind. The FW38 is suited to the high speed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Massa is confident Williams will be able to take an attacking approach.

Asked if Williams can fight with Red Bull during the race, Massa replied: “I hope so.

“Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, everyone! I hope so. We need to wait and see how the race will be but we need to try to fight with everybody in front of us. We have Kimi and Verstappen who are the first cars in front so we need to try.”

While McLaren has been closing the gap in 2016 and Force India scored a podium in Monaco, when asked if he sees either team as a threat Massa said: “Not for the moment.

“I think for the moment we are starting both cars in front of McLaren, both cars in front of Force India, so at the moment we are in a good shape against these teams that are behind us in the championship. We are not in an easy condition compared to the teams in the front.”

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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.