Felipe Massa: Hungarian GP result "important" after run of crashes

Williams has generally been the closest challenger to Mercedes in recent races, finishing on the podium in three of the last four grands prix with Valtteri Bottas.

Massa had failed to finish either of the two events prior to the Hungarian race, after getting wiped out by Kimi Raikkonen's first-lap crash in the British GP and rolling out of the German GP at the first corner after contact with Kevin Magnussen's McLaren.

He had also been involved in a massive crash with Sergio Perez at the end of the Canadian GP last month.

The Brazilian said finishing fifth at the Hungaroring on Sunday was a "relief" after his recent bad run.

"If we look what's happened in the last races it's a nice relief to finish a race and score some reasonable points," Massa said.

"For sure I needed to have that clean race. It was important for me. I took a lot of care on the first lap and we finished, so that's important."

While thankful to have ended his run of accidents, Massa was frustrated that it coincided with a race where Williams's competitiveness waned.

"[It's] definitely not enough," he said of his fifth place. "We didn't have a car to fight with Red Bull and Ferrari, even though we finished in front of one Ferrari.

"The car was not so competitive, just too slow."