Williams driver Pastor Maldonado's disappointing qualifying result was compromised by traffic, according to the team's race engineer Xevi Pujolar.
The Venezuelan could only manage 18th on the grid for Sunday's race while teammate Valtteri Bottas will start 15th and Pujolar suggested that there are opportunites to make ground.
He told reporters: "Unfortunately Pastor was hampered by traffic on his first lap in Q1 and didn't have enough time to cool the tyres down ahead of his second flying lap.
"We expect to see a number of strategies in the race with team's opting to run the soft tyres at different stages of the race, which will open up more opportunities to gain positions."
Williams have struggled so far this season with Maldonado scoring the team's solitary point.
