Williams drivers prepping for showdown with Force India

Williams ended its US Grand Prix qualifying session on Saturday with both drivers in the top ten and Valtteri Bottas in P8 just edging out team mate Felipe Massa in P9.

It was a fairly strait forward session for both drivers as the Grove-based outfit prepares to resume its battle with rival Force India in the Constructors championship.

"It was a good qualifying for us as a team," said Valtteri Bottas who, it is understood, will be remaining at Williams in 2017.

"We’re in-between the Force India’s for the start of the race, and that’s after they had more pace than us in qualifying.

"Hopefully,  the race will be a different case. It’s going to be a long race and we know we can compete against them with our race pace.

Bottas duly noted his gap with Nico Hulkenberg's better-placed Force India, and the Finn is hoping his rival's advantage will not persist until the end of the season.

"We hope it's a one-off, but we also know there are no updates coming to our car, so all we can do is make the most out of the car we have, getting it well balanced and trying to get everything out of the tyres.

"We'll see in the race what the pace is. The progress we’ve made since practice with our set-up will hopefully help us, as it’s going to be a very close and aggressive battle with Force India.

"We need to do everything we can to be ahead of both of them. It’s a battle we can win."

Felipe Massa, who trailed his team mate in qualifying by just over a tenth of a second, also focused on the team's battle with Force India, and hoped that consistency and adequate strategy will be on hand tomorrow to help score some solid points.

"The positive from qualifying is that both cars are right in the middle of the Force India’s so we are well positioned to race them," said Massa.

"The only downside is that the gap to Hulkenberg’s car is bigger than we would have liked, but our car is feeling better on long runs at this track than shorter runs which will help us.

"We need to get everything right in the race, especially the strategy, to maximise the points we score."

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