Williams chief Paddy Lowe says Felipe Massa could have claimed victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, had he not suffered a terminal suspension failure after the race restart.
Massa moved up to third place during a dramatic race at the Baku City Circuit, briefly challenging Sebastian Vettel for second, and held a podium position in the red-flag phase.
Massa was overhauled by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who went on to triumph, at the restart, just as the Brazilian began to struggle, with his FW40 shaking in the high-speed sections, amid a suspension problem.
The Brazilian pulled into the pits shortly after to retire his car.
“Felipe had an internal suspension failure that emerged just after [the restart], which I’m very upset about,” said Lowe.
“Without that issue we really believe that Felipe could have won the race and we could even have had a double podium.”
Lowe went on to praise the performance of rookie Lance Stroll, who finished on the podium, only narrowly missing out on second place when he was overhauled by Valtteri Bottas on the run to the finish line.
“Lance was faultless in every session, he stayed out of trouble, didn’t have any incidents and that carried into the race,” said Lowe.
“He kept it clean, had good pace and managed the car and the tyres well. It was good battle at the end and we were very unfortunate to lose second place.
“The critical moment was that Valtteri got DRS on the last lap, that lost Lance second place. But we’re very happy with third.”
Williams moved up to fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead of Toro Rosso.
