Qualifying Notes
• Felipe Massa qualified fourth and Valtteri Bottas fifth for tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix.
• After making it into Q2 with just one option tyre run each, both drivers showed good pace throughout the session.
Q1
V. Bottas: 1:38.014 (3rd)
F. Massa: 1:38.433 (7th)
Quickest Time: S. Vettel (1:37.502)
Q2
F. Massa: 1:37.357 (5th)
V. Bottas: 1:37.763 (6th)
Quickest Time: L. Hamilton (1:36.423)
Q3
F. Massa: 1:36.954 (4th)
V. Bottas: 1:37.143 (5th)
Quickest Time: L Hamilton (1:35.782)
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It was a good job by the whole team. We managed to get the best out of the car from both drivers and qualifying in fourth and fifth is a pleasing result. We had a lot to do this morning after FP3 and we have delivered on the hard work, so I am happy. We have got ourselves into a good position for the race and are hoping for a strong result tomorrow.
Felipe Massa: I am really happy with my lap. I managed to get the best out of the car and showed we are still in the fight with Ferrari. The car has improved throughout the weekend and we had the set-up correct for qualifying. Tomorrow is when it really counts so I hope we can have a strong race and get the most points on offer from the car.
Valtteri Bottas: It was quite a close qualifying, although I suffered with the rear of the car throughout the final session, which made it a bit harder. We know we need to work on our race pace, but we should be closer than we were in the first two races. The cars in front look strong so we have to concentrate on tyre degradation.
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