Felipe Massa has compared his eighth place finish in the Belgian Grand Prix to a race victory, after the Williams team suffered a difficult weekend which saw both cars fail to escape Q1 in qualifying.
Massa's weekend started with a first practice crash, which also ruled him out of FP2 due to the extensive damage and a chassis change, which meant he completed minimal running before qualifying, which made things even harder given he skipped the previous race due to illness.
But Massa made up ground in the race and although admitting eighth isn't a particularly great result, he believes the way he drove to move up the order was comparable to winning the race.
"I’m very happy with the race, it was like a victory," said the Brazilian.
![Isack Hadjar [pictured] has deferred to Max Verstappen for Day 2 of the F1 pre-season test. Image: Red Bull Content Pool](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Isack-Hadjar-Red-Bull-test-2026-120x86.webp)
"Great start, great overtakes, good pace for the car we struggled with [in qualifying], so I’m really happy and also to be able to keep the cars behind at the end.
"I think it was a very intense race, but I’m so happy. I know eighth place is not a nice position, looking at everything I have achieved in my career, but today the way I drove the car and the way I drove in this race, it was definitely like a victory and I’m so happy.
"For sure there’s a lot to understand and improve in the car, like what wasn’t working in the last two races, but I’m happy with the perfect race I had."
![Isack Hadjar [pictured] has deferred to Max Verstappen for Day 2 of the F1 pre-season test. Image: Red Bull Content Pool](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Isack-Hadjar-Red-Bull-test-2026-350x250.webp)
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