THE Grove-based Will-iams F1 team were celebrating after Valtteri Bottas achieved his best race result with a second place in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.

It was a second successive podium finish for the Finn, who finished third in the Austrian Grand Prix last month.

Bottas, who was beaten by the Mercedes of Lewis Ham-ilton, moves up to fifth in the drivers standings, one place above reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Williams are also fifth in the constructors championship.

But there was disappointment for Bottas’s teammate Felipe Massa in his 200th GP .

The Brazilian was forced to retire after getting caught in a multi-car accident involving Kimi Raikkonen at the start that red-flagged the race for nearly an hour.

Bottas, who made great progress with a brilliant drive through the field, said: “We knew that this race would be good fun.

“We knew we had a quick car and maybe it surprised us “The first stint we went through the field fast and that was a bit of risk.

“I really felt for Felipe in his 200th race.”

Massa said: “It has been a really difficult weekend.

“It was a bad start but after that I could catch up everyone and pass cars in the first few corners.

“Then there was the accident.

Kimi came across the track and I never really had a chance to miss him, and sadly the damage was too much to continue.

“Luckily I turned, as it could have been a worse accident.”

Rob Smedley, Williams’s head of performance engineering, said: “It’s a great result for Valtteri and he showed incredible racecraft.

“You couldn’t ask for anything more from the driver; he changed his race around with those overtakes in the first stint.”