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Massa column: Monza result timely ahead of tough races
In his latest column for Motorsport.com, Felipe Massa reflects on a positive Italian Grand Prix weekend, where both Williams were in the points.
Felipe Massa
Edited: Sep 7, 2017, 12:55 PM
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Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver who currently drives for Williams.
I think we had a good Italian Grand Prix at Monza. I was very happy with the overall result for Williams Martini Racing, with two cars in the points on a weekend where we were very close to the top teams.
At the same time I am also happy to have been able to run in front of an incredible crowd, who were fantastic right from the start of first free practice.
The first good impressions of our potential came on Friday too when, at the end of the two free practice sessions, we showed we had the pace to be in the top ten.
On Saturday, as I am sure you are aware, the conditions changed drastically. Even so, on an extremely wet track, we were competitive and got a really good result.
Even without the grid penalties elsewhere we looked strong, and after everything was shuffled I started seventh – with my teammate Lance Stroll starting an incredible second. He did a great job, and I'm glad he produced such an impressive result for a young driver.
With good positions on the grid there was less chance of hitting trouble at the first chicane, which is always a critical moment at Monza.
Indeed, everything went well on the opening lap, but once the positions had stabilised we saw that at Monza, where car performance is often similar, that overtaking can be very hard.
Lance spent most of the race behind Esteban Ocon, and I was behind the pair of them. And even with DRS, there was very little I could do – because Force India was unassailable. Esteban didn't have the speed to pull away, but equally we did not have the chance to attack him.
On the last lap, I had the opportunity to attack my teammate because of a lock-up he had. I tried, and we almost touched – but there was no point in taking any risk that could put in doubt the good team result.
We were able to finish the race with both cars in the points, something that has only happened once so far this year in Austria. I think we can be happy with that – even though of course we would have really liked to have put both Force Indias behind us.
Looking forward, now we are expecting one of the three races of the year that we rated at the beginning of the year as the most difficult for us. We think Singapore will be as tough for us as Monaco and Budapest were.
The Marina Bay circuit does not have the best layout for our car, and this is not a secret. But there is always hope that there will be an unpredictable race, typical of the city circuit.
My goal is to make sure that I am in the right place to seize any opportunity that could come our way. If we can grab some points by the chequered flag, that will be good news.
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