Race slipped through Williams’ hands - Massa

Felipe Massa was left to rue the late change of conditions at Silverstone on Sunday after slumping from second to fourth following the onset of rain.

Massa jumped into an unexpected lead at the start and remained in front until being undercut by Lewis Hamilton at the first round of pit stops. But as rain began to fall the Brazilian was overhauled by Nico Rosberg before a delayed switch to intermediate tyres enabled Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel - who’d stopped one lap earlier - to move ahead.

“It’s a bit frustrating - the podium was in my hands today,” said Massa, who has never finished on the rostrum in Great Britain. “I did an amazing start, amazing performance throughout the race, fighting with Mercedes.

“We had maybe second position in our hands - then everything changed with the rain. Waiting one lap longer to stop… it was really wet. It was really frustrating to lose a podium like that. [But] in the rain many things can happen, maybe getting it right [in terms of strategy], maybe getting it wrong - this is part of the game.”

Massa’s team mate Valtteri Bottas, who was running third before also being passed by both Rosberg and Vettel in slippery conditions, was similarly disappointed by his wet-weather showing.

“With the inters I just couldn’t get the tyres to work at all and really struggled a lot,” said the Finn, “so then we lost a couple more positions.

"We have to have a look the race data and make sure we continue to learn from this."

Vettel’s late-race surge meant that Ferrari only lost three points to Williams in the battle for second place in the constructors' standings, with the gap between the two teams now 60 points.