Finn and team-mate Massa second and third on Hockenheim grid
Saturday 19 July 2014 22:13, UK
Valtteri Bottas believes Williams need to stay grounded and not lose focus on maximising their points haul in races, despite the revitalised team’s latest show of speed in Germany on Saturday.
The Grove-based outfit have showed over the last month that they are emerging as the second-fastest team behind dominant championship leaders Mercedes, with the outfit following up a shock front-row lockout in Austria with a second-place race finish for Bottas at Silverstone.
With Lewis Hamilton crashing out of qualifying early at Hockenheim on Saturday, the door was opened for Williams to again show their FW36’s competitiveness and in both Q2 and Q3 only Nico Rosberg headed Bottas and team-mate Felipe Massa on the timesheet.
Bottas, aiming for a third consecutive podium finish on Sunday, was beaten to pole by 0.2 seconds by the Mercedes driver but says Williams should be delighted with their form.
“We must again be really happy with the result we got today as a team, second and third, so well done to everyone," the Finn declared. "The lap I had in the end was no mistakes and a really nice lap so I really felt I got everything out of the car.
“But Mercedes is still ahead."
Less than a year after Williams fell to ninth in the Constructors' Championship, Bottas admitted he was enjoying being part of the team's revival but stressed they all still had plenty of improvement to make.
"I feel pretty happy to be part of this team because it is going the right way," the 24-year-old added.
"Again a strong result from us as a team and me and Felipe, so it’s good to be part of this. Still really focusing on getting better and better. There’s no points from today so we need to focus on that again and try to do the perfect job we can and get the maximum points available."
Massa will head up the second row despite lapping three tenths slower in Q3 than the lead Williams. The Brazilian admitted he wasn't happy with the set-up of his FW36 all day but after showing impressive race pace on Friday, the 33-year-old expressed optimism that things would be better over the longer distance.
“I was struggling to put the lap together. I had some movement from the tyres and was not able to have a perfect car to put all the sectors together," Massa explained.
"The car was not 100 per cent perfect in terms of set-up to do the perfect lap, but Valtteri did really a good lap. But I’m still quite happy with the result and our car and for sure in the race the conditions are totally different, the feeling of the car is different. So let’s try to do a very good job tomorrow as well."
Watch the 2014 German GP live only on Sky Sports F1. Race-day coverage begins at 11.30am from Hockenheim on Sunday
