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Williams hopeful Massa can beat the Bulls

MONTREAL, Canada - Williams have set Felipe Massa a target of beating at least one of the Red Bulls after penalties to rivals moved him up the starting grid at the  2015 Canadian GP.

Massa qualified 17th at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday (June 6), while team mate Valtteri Bottas was a fourth but penalties to Max Verstappen  and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel lifted him up the order.

'TURBOCHARGER FAILED'

Williams' head of performance and engineering, Rob Smedley, said: "It was a fixing within the wastegate mechanism of the turbocharger that failed (for Massa). It will be changed for Sunday.

"It meant in simple terms that he just didn't have any power. It was very difficult to charge the battery as well with the hybrid system."

Smedley said the part was being replaced for reliability reasons and would not incur any penalty.

Mercedes-powered Williams are third in the constructors' championship but failed to score in the previous round in Monaco and are now only 29 points ahead of fourth-placed Red Bull.

Smedley said: "The hope is that he can get his car in front of the two Red Bull cars. The number one priority with him tomorrow is to make sure he outscores at least one of their cars to help us increase that gap."

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo starts ninth with Russian team mate Daniil Kvyat lining up in eighth place.

The Mercedes-powered cars have a clear performance advantage in Montreal, however, while former champions Red Bull have paid a high price already this season for reliability problems with their Renault units.

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2015 F1 season – fresh reports every day.

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