Williams pilot Felipe Massa says he is "surprised" he was unable to score points in the inaugural Russian Gran⭕d Prix and believes the team made the wrong call by getting him to pit on the opening la🔯p.

Massa lined-up in 18th place on the grid, having bee🎉n eliminated in Q1 on Saturday due to a reliabil🎀ity issue that left him down on power.

However, despite a storming start, he pitted following that first tour and while he then came back through the pack, he later got stuck behind Sergio Pe♔rez and eventually had to settle for eleventh.

"To be honest, yes," Massa replied when asked if he was surprised he w🦩asn't a⛄ble to get any points.

"I was surprised bec🐻ause the pace of the car was very good. I passed seven cars on the opening lap and I don⛄'t know if it was the right thing to stop [at the end of the first lap] because we were already eleventh. It wasn't inside the strategy to stop straight away. I even asked the team and said we had passed many cars, but they said it was better to stop.

"After the pace was very good and I was able to catch lots of guys and overtake so many cars - i💜t was so easy until I got to Peᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrez.

"It was not possible to pass him. I was behind him and the speed he had on the straight I couldn't catch him enough to risk a m💞ove. That destroyed my race. It was so many laps behind him and then he stopped and I stayed out two more laps. But my tyres were not in good shape because I had been 🔯too long behind him.

"Then I stopped and changed the tyres, but got back on track behind him again and he had good tyres and a better phase with good speed and so🗹 it𓆏 was not possible to pass him.

"It was so easy to pass everybody - even the Toro Rossos and so many of the other cars, but not him... because of his car. He was very good and I didn't have any opportunity. He 📖had good traction and good speed. For my car it was not possible - that is aℱll I can say.

"It was not nice, because I think we had the pace and🍰 a car to finish in the good points and we finish just one position behind the p𝐆oints."

Asked if he could have scored, if he had done a different strategy, h🐻e replied: "If I go again on the track and do the race aღgain, I would stay out.

"But it is easy to say after."

Meanwhile, Massa confirmed that while he had to change 💃the engine for the race, the one used for qualifying should be okay to use again.

"It should be usable because the probl♑em [in qualifying] was not on the engine. It was on the fuel pump, but it was better to change the engine as it is a little bit complicated to change [the fuel pump] here - it is better to do that in the factory," he explained.