At the Malaysian Grand Prix, his whole race was compromised by extremely bad luck. Massa suffered a throttle issue, leaving him stranded on the grid as the formation lap started. The team were able to get the car going to enable him to start from the pitlane. However, just a couple of laps later he picked up a slow puncture and had to pit again. Massa was then down in 19th but drove a strong race to fight back to 13th at the finish. Next, in Japan, Williams decided to do a single effort in Q2, which saw Massa qualifying in twelfth. In the race, Massa lost 2 places at the start, from the Toro Rosso drivers, as he started on the medium tyres. After following a one stop strategy, Massa finished in ninth, just in front of his teammate. At the following race, in Austin, Massa qualified in ninth. In the race, Massa had an excellent start, gaining two positions at the first corner and running in sixth place. However, a virtual safety car was deployed due to Max Verstappen's retirement allowing Carlos Sainz Jr an advantage to move ahead into fifth place. In the final stint, in a battle for fifth, Massa and Fernando Alonso came together to Massa's detriment, dropping him to seventh and causing a puncture which resulted in a pitstop on the penultimate lap. The incident was investigated by the stewards, but no action was taken. Massa was able to maintain track position and finish the race in seventh, ahead of Sergio Pérez. This was the best result for Massa since the Russian Grand Prix.