- Singapore GP - Race
Massa: I was driving 'like a grandma'
Felipe Massa says he had to crawl home for fifth in the Singapore Grand Prix after Williams decided not to bring him in for fresh tyres during the safety car period.
Massa had a quiet race in fifth but had to stretch out his prime stint instead of taking on fresh rubber, a strategy call he did not agree with at the time. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas tumbled down the order on similar tyres late in the race but Massa managed hold on for fifth after completing over half the race on his primes, which he says was next to impossible on old rubber.
"After the safety car I was pushing, and then I was told that I had to finish the race on this set of tyres," Massa said. "For me, that was a joke, it was impossible to finish the race on those tyres. Then, I drove like a grandma from there to the end, and then somehow managed to finish the race in fifth place, so I'm happy! If I had changed the tyres, I would have finished fifth anyway but closer to Fernando.
"[They told me] three laps after the restart, and there was still 25 laps to go. It's really a lot. I had to change my driving style but I was still quicker than everybody else behind. My opinion at that time is not the important thing, if we stopped we go back behind everybody. I didn't say 'I think it's wrong', I said 'I don't think it would be possible'."
Despite his frustrations about Williams' strategy during the race, Massa is relieved to finish fifth as it was the best possible for the team.
'It was a good race, a great race. It was difficult to do a better result on this track than what I did, because Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull were all quicker than us, and then the team decided to not stop under the safety car and I wasn't sure whether that was the right thing to do.I feel sorry for Valtteri, he was behind me during the whole race. For me, yes it was the optimum. We finished in the best position we were supposed to finish."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
