- Japanese GP - FP2
Massa struggles with lack of grip on Friday
Felipe Massa thinks Valtteri Bottas' pace proves how competitive Williams can be after he struggled to find grip throughout Friday's practice sessions at Suzuka.
Bottas was fourth and third in the two Friday sessions, but on both occasions Massa failed to break into the top ten. Williams has upgrades on the car this weekend but Massa says something was not quite right with his set-up, though he thinks that can be rectified for a competitive qualifying session - which is forecast to be dry.
"Valtteri was very quick today but I had problems in my car," Massa said. "I couldn't feel any grip in the car, I was struggling massively with any tyres I tried. I'm sure it's something wrong with the car, something causing a problem. We need to fix and understand this and we have the whole evening to do that. If we fix the car we can be competitive.
"I don't think it's set-up, I just think it some pieces that are not working on my car for whatever reason. We need to change many pieces for tomorrow and understand what's going on because something is not working on. I don't think the issue is coming from the new parts. I think it's some issues on the car, maybe floor or something that is not working. We'll need to change everything to see if we can find the problem."
Massa thinks fixing the problem is the difference between a good qualifying session and a wasted opportunity on Saturday.
If we fix the problem, no, if we don't fix the problem, for sure," Massa said when asked if he could be competitive in qualifying. "The package should work how we expected. I think he showed how competitive we are and how good we can be on this track so now we have to find the problem I have on the car. This is a track I always like and have always been competitive."
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