17/09/2016
NEWS STORY
Valtteri Bottas qualified 11th and Felipe Massa 12th for the Singapore Grand Prix. Both cars progressed from Q1 into Q2 after opening runs on the ultrasoft tyre, with Felipe advancing in P13 and Valtteri P15.
Both drivers used new ultrasofts twice in Q2 and were inside the top 10 after their first runs. But their second runs were hampered by double waved yellow flags in sectors two and three.
Felipe and Valtteri backed off under the yellows, but others improved their times which dropped both outside the top 10, unable to make it through to Q3. The stewards are investigating Perez for failing to slow for double waved yellow flags in Turns 9 and 10.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: There are positives and negatives for us. We were never going to be happy with 11th and 12th, but we've acquitted ourselves quite well at a circuit that doesn't play to the strengths of our car, especially in qualifying. We did a lot of work overnight and, although the end result isn't stunning, the team has done a good job to find our feet. We had the same pace as Force India during the qualifying sessions that we were both in. Given that this was never going to be our best circuit, we were happy with the pace up to that point. We could have had both cars in the top 10 if it weren't for the yellow flags, where Perez got through when everyone else aborted. It also looks like he's overtaken under a yellow flag in a separate incident. The stewards are investigating so depending on the outcome, that could move us a little higher up the grid. Our pace on Friday was encouraging. We can definitely race from where we are and get some points tomorrow to keep pushing forward in the championship.
Valtteri Bottas: We managed to make little improvements from practice to qualifying but this weekend seems to be a little bit tricky for us. It was tight out there - it's very close with Force India. I felt like I had another very good lap in Q2 but because of the yellow flag I had to slow down a little bit, that's why Perez is ahead of us, but he's under investigation so we'll see what happens. The race pace is looking better than what we've seen over one lap here, so we will fight with Force India tomorrow and also try to get ahead of Toro Rosso. That's a good target for us.
Felipe Massa: It wasn't a great qualifying in the end. I was improving on my final lap, but I couldn't finish it because I had to slow down for the yellow flags. Maybe some other cars didn't slow down. Looking ahead, the race is tomorrow and we need to be ready for anything in Singapore.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Singapore, here.