Williams and Ferrari expect fight at Russian GP after qualifying duel

Williams technical chief Rob Smedley is confident that his drivers can compete with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in Sunday's Russian GP despite Felipe Massa's bad day at the office.

Sunday's race behind Mercedes will be characterised by a Ferrari-Williams battle after Valtteri Bottas out-qualified both Scuderia cars by claiming third.

Smedley confirmed that they "were quicker than the Ferraris" in qualifying on Saturday and that they "should have had finished third and fourth or third and fifth, and not third and fifteenth".

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel agreed that Williams made a solid performance: "We know that Williams are very strong at this track and that they drove a very good race last year so it will be a good challenge tomorrow."

The head-to-head race is turned down by Felipe Massa's catastrophic result with the Brazilian just 15th on the grid. But the huge gap between him and his team-mate was influenced by external issues rather than his error, explained the Brazilian:

"It wasn't just my mistake. The problem was that we had traffic and I lost time. And at one of the laps I wasn't ready how I was supposed to be and then in the last lap the tyres were gone in the rear and I couldn't do the lap in time so it was a really frustrating qualifying."

His team-mate Bottas will be the one fighting with the Ferraris again and the Finn is happy that Williams "is quite competitive."

Vettel is aware of the fact that overtaking in Sochi is different to Japan. He is hoping to solve the difficulty right off the line as he did in Suzuka, but he also adds: "I am sure the rival (Bottas) will try to do a better start this time".

But besides minor degradation problems both teams are confident they will enjoy a profitable GP on Sunday despite feeling they didn't manage to get everything out of their cars on Saturday in qualifying.

Vettel's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who line up fifth right behind Vettel, also concluded a result for Sunday's race is currently unpredictable as "everything is unknown".

Don't miss Sky Sports F1's live weekend-long coverage of the 2015 Russian Grand Prix. Our race-day show begins at 10.30am on Sunday, with lights out at 12 noon. Watch the Russian GP for £6.99 with NOW TV