Valtteri Bottas secured P8 in qualifying in Jeddah in Alfa Romeo while his previous teammate Lewis Hamilton got eliminated in Q1.
Valtteri Bottas moved to the Swiss F1 team Alfa Romeo after serving five years with Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton.
Having outperformed Hamilton in Jeddah qualifying, Bottas explains how it feels to see the Briton and Mercedes struggle. The seven-time world champion got eliminated in the Q1 in qualifying in Jeddah marking it as the first time since 2017.
In the meantime, Hamilton’s teammate George Russell had a better day and qualified in P6 on Saturday. Mercedes has been struggling so far this season and this time they are really not sandbagging.
As for Bottas, he is performing quite well in Alfa Romeo as he secured P8 and his teammate Guanyu Zhou qualified 13th.
Valtteri Bottas says it is weird to see Hamilton struggle
The Finnish driver admitted that it was weird to see Hamilton struggle on the track in Saturday’s session. Bottas said, “It’s weird to see. I would guess he had some kind of issue. I don’t know.”
However, the Alfa Romeo driver is still looking forward to and enjoying having the opportunity to compete against his former team.
“It is surprising to see them struggling, but it’s also nice to be able to battle with them,” the Finnish driver said.
Bottas has a strong start to the year with his new team. He finished the Bahrain GP in sixth place for the team.
“I think this was kind of the best-case scenario for our first season together that I could ever imagine, with the information I had,” the 10-time race winner explained.
“I’m really happy with the decision I made, and I’m happy overall as well. So yeah, [I’m] enjoying it.”
