Chinese GP Qualifying

Felipe Massa qualified sixth and Valtteri Bottas seventh for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix in a rain affected session. Both cars showed improved performance in the wet conditions, and despite the changeable weather, the team feel positive for tomorrow’s race.

Rob Smedley, Head of Vehicle Performance: Sessions like that are never easy, but I am once again impressed with the day’s performance. To not be penalised by a wet qualifying shows that the work we have done has improved the handling of the car. The race engineers performed admirably and the crew performed well in difficult conditions, which is good to see. The drivers also did a fantastic job today and so overall I am happy. We still have some work to do with the car in terms of performance but it is good to see progress.

Felipe Massa: Today was a difficult day for us, as the weather was tough, but we got the most of out of it and showed that we have improved in the wet. It’s good to see forward steps. Tomorrow could be an interesting day as we are more competitive in the dry; it could make for a good race. To have both cars in the top ten once again is really promising, now we have to go and improve for the race tomorrow.

Valtteri Bottas: Today was a positive day for us as it’s clear we have made some improvements in the wet. The updates we brought here have helped in the dry but it’s good to see they have improved the car’s performance in the wet as well. It’s the right direction and it’s the result of a lot of hard work from the guys. We are still more competitive in the dry so we hope the race will be dry and we can finish higher than we are today.