Friday: Bottas and Massa Perform Well for Williams F1
After a few laps adapting to this new circuit, the two Williams F1 drivers quickly found a track that suited their car well. They finished the day in fifth and seventh places.
Valtteri Bottas (No. 77) – 10th and 5th
The Finn had a preconception before arriving on this track which quickly changed after the first laps: « I am positively surprised by the track which is more challenging than I thought, with some technical sectors, especially the last one, and I found it enjoyable to drive. »
From the more specific perspective of tires, two characteristics stand out according to him: « The asphalt is quite smooth and combined with the hard compounds, there was little tire degradation today, but that brings its own problems since the tires are more difficult to bring up to temperature in the opening laps. So we have to work towards getting the most out of two tires for tomorrow’s qualifying, but overall a good start for us and this track seems to suit our car quite well.
Felipe Massa (No. 19) – 11th and 7th
For this first day on this new circuit, the Brazilian first tried to find the car’s limits: « My first impression is that the car behaves well here and I like the track layout. The track surface was very slippery this morning, but it improved a lot throughout the day, and we will still see it change over the weekend. »
Regarding performance, the Williams seems to adapt well to the Russian track: « I’m quite happy with the car’s balance and the performance is consistent, so overall I’m quite pleased with our day’s testing. »
