Qualifying - Hungarian GP report: Williams Mercedes

— Valtteri qualified sixth and Felipe eighth for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
— Both cars carried two sets of new option tyres into the final session giving them the best opportunity to extract maximum performance from today in an extremely hot session.

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering

The drivers extracted all the performance possible from the car, it just wasn’t enough for the second row. It’s not a circuit that suits us as much as other tracks do, but the race is long tomorrow and will be tough for everyone. We will see how the temperature change affects the performance, the slightly cooler temperatures should help us. We are aiming to get as many points on offer and to move forward, always keeping the podium as our target.

Valtteri Bottas

As expected it was a really close qualifying and we were just a few tenths slower than we wanted to be. I got everything I could of from the car so I am pleased with my performance. Tomorrow is the points day, and we have a bit of work to do, but we will fight to the end.

Felipe Massa

I am content, I would like to have been further up the grid, but I just didn’t deliver a clean lap. I will focus on making the most of the tyres tomorrow and hope we can have a better car in the race than qualifying. The lower temperature expected tomorrow could also play into our hands. I have a lot to do and let’s hope we both get starts similar to Silverstone.