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Felipe Massa was left with a sizeable grin on his face after qualifying, as the once retired Brazilian will start tomorrow's Russian Grand Prix sixth position, splitting the two Red Bull's.
Sochi Autodrom has been a track that has suited Williams since the inaugural event in 2014, but Massa had to settle for a third row start after his fastest lap in the final stage of qualifying, a feat that he is happy about.
"It was a great qualifying for us. It's so nice to see that we are in the middle of the two Red Bulls. They were better than us in the first three races, on qualifying and race pace, but this is a good track for us and we are fighting with them. I'm happy with the position we're starting, but I'm also happy that maybe tomorrow we can fight with them again. I will try everything I can, I'm very motivated and I hope everything will be right for us to have a good race tomorrow."
We are ready!! ?????? pic.twitter.com/oAR5MJYPqR
— Felipe Massa (@MassaFelipe19) April 29, 2017
Massa's teammate Lance Stroll was left slightly disappointed as the Canadian failed to make it out of Q2 and will line up on tomorrow's grid P11. The 18-year-old set the twelfth fastest time in the session but Carlos Sainz's penalty from Bahrain will be applied, promoting Stroll up one place.
Stroll reckons that he could have made it into the final round of qualifying, but failed to get the warm-up lap that he wanted meaning his final lap was compromised by low tyre temperatures.
"It was a bit unfortunate at the end as I think Q3 was possible, but I just missed out at the end of my lap in Q2. I didn't get to do the warm up lap I wanted, and around here it is quite important to get the tyre working properly. I had a good start to the lap and then I lost a lot of grip in the last sector, made a couple of mistakes and just lost the rear, which wasn’t great.
"I was a couple of tenths up but didn’t manage to hold it. There is more in it. I think this weekend is quite tricky with tyres and getting them to work properly, but we can race from P12 (P11). It is a long race tomorrow, we will see what happens and hopefully luck is going to be a bit more on our side."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Good day for Massa, Stroll still needs to find his feet