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The Williams Formula 1 team's disappointing performance in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix was a result of not operating the tyres correctly, according to performance chief Rob Smedley.

Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were seventh and ninth fastest respectively, although the Finn will move up a position thanks to Romain Grosjean's two-place grid penalty.

While Smedley was not explicit about the nature of the team's error, both drivers indicated that tyre pressures were too high, leading to overheating problems.

Smedley admitted that this was "more than likely" the problem that led to the lead Williams being 2.639 seconds off Lewis Hamilton's pole time.

"The main problem is that we haven't operated the tyre correctly," said Smedley when asked by AUTOSPORT about the tyre troubles.

"Certainly, there's enough evidence of what we did wrong but it needs more analysis.

"What we were trying to do was to make sure that we didn't have any warm-up problems, which has been an Achilles' Heel in the wet in the past... and we didn't have any warm-up problems."

Smedley stressed that the decision to start Q3 on wet rubber, rather than intermediates, was not a factor in the team's underachievement.

"When we were watching the safety car [under the red flag] you could see it was going to clear pretty quickly," said Smedley.

"It was between extreme and intermediate at that point and the main cell of rain was gone by then so the track was never going to be at its best at the start of the session.

"So it was a decision of little consequence, even if it looks like a big decision to the outside world.

"The important bit is that you are on the right tyre at the right time and if you look at what we did from that respect, being on the inter and being the last to pit, apart from Grosjean, we did a reasonable job."

NO INHERENT CAR WEAKNESS

Smedley also torpedoed suggestions that the team's 2014 weakness in wet conditions had carried over.

He underlined that its qualifying performance was as a consequence of the tyre mistake, not any inherent limitations in the car.

"We are 2.6s off pole position and there is not 2.6s of deficit in the car, so it means that we have done something wrong," he said.

"There's nothing wrong with the aerodynamics of the car, there's nothing wrong with the mechanical car, we don't lack downforce, it's not that we have a very efficient car with low downforce and little drag because in the dry we go through high-speed corners faster than everybody else.

"So there is nothing wrong with the car and I won't accept that as an excuse.

"It's for the work that goes on prior to sessions like that because you don't make decision on the spur of the moment."