Williams chases cure to software misfire glitch

The Grove-based team had high hopes of a decent grid slot at Spa-Francorchamps, but found itself on the back foot after both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas suffered misfires with their qualifying engine modes.

The team suspects that the issue cost it around three tenths of a second per lap, which would have been enough for Bottas to slot in ahead of rivals Force India.

The Finn said: “The whole of qualifying [there was] a software issue. We’re still finding out more details and if we can fix it for [the race] or not, because some of the numbers are locked and they are still finding out within the regulations what we can do.

“Because of that we couldn’t run the best mode for the engine, which cost us maybe about three tenths today.”

Williams performance chief Rob Smedley said the team was unsure of why the misfire problem had only come to light in qualifying.

“It is the power unit software, the settings, and we are currently investigating the exact details of what happened,” he said. “The result was that on the first timed lap when we put the qualifying mode in, we had horrendous misfires really, from Turn 1 to Turn 4. That was on Felipe's car.

“We then understand that there was an issue with the qualifying mode and we knocked it back into race mode so he finished his first lap and the latter part of that lap, he finished that in race mode.

“When Valtteri went out, we were more attuned that there could be a problem and we were able to turn his engine down from qualifying mode to race mode quite quickly.

"Still in race mode we were suffering from misfires and, with the way the engines have been set-up, we still suffered misfires so we must get that sorted.”

When asked if the problem could be there for the race, Smedley said: “I don't think it will be an issue. We need to make some changes and there are various routes of us doing that.

“We couldn't do it in time during qualifying for various reasons but we need to look at it for the race to ensure we are both safe and reliable with the power units.”