FELIPE Massa bemoaned issues with his steering wheel as he endured a miserable Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Brazilian, who drives for Grove-based Williams, finished 18th at the Hungaroring, while teammate Valtteri Bottas could only pick up two points in ninth.

Massa had already suffered a torrid weekend when he could only qualify 18th after aquaplaning into the barriers in a first session delayed by torrential rain.

And it got only worse for the 35-year-old, who encountered steering rack issues on the way to the grid for Sunday’s race.

He said: “It was a terrible race, which started on the way to the grid with the problem with my steering wheel rack being too light on one side and too heavy on the other.

“We tried to fix the problem and we couldn’t, but at least we improved it because the initial lap was impossible.”

Massa does not have long to put right the events in Hungary, with the German Grand Prix this weekend at Hockenheim.

Rob Smedley, Williams’s head of performance engineering, said: “I’m disappointed with that result. We had to work very hard for those two points.

“I think we achieved the maximum we could with Valtteri, he drove a solid race, but the pace of the car is just not there.

“These are tough times for the team. We have to knuckle down, be introspective, work as a team and start to understand how we’re going to get more performance from the car.”