“Why I couldn’t match Lewis’s times in Q3”- Valtteri Bottas shows confusion after why he lost time against his teammate at the Russian GP.
Lewis Hamilton bagged P1 in the grid ahead of the race on Sunday after another spectacular performance in the qualifying. On the other hand, his teammate Valtteri Bottas got P3.
But after the qualifying, the Finnish driver explained the deficit in his performance but at the same time, he raised a question, as he remained confused why he lost time against Hamilton.
“For me, there was not so much going on actually. It was pretty straightforward from my side. I think I was quite fortunate that all the happenings didn’t really affect me.”
“Q1, Q2 from my side it was pretty good. The car was feeling good and the pace seemed to be there, unlike in Q3. Bottas was able to improve his lap time from Q2 to Q3,”
But Hamilton made a much bigger step. He drew six-tenths of a second clear of his teammate, and Max Verstappen also managed to out-qualify Bottas.
“Q3 was a tricky one,” said Bottas. “In the first run, I didn’t feel my tyres were ready. Out of the last corner, starting the lap, I had a big snap so I lost already a couple of tenths on the run down to turn two.”
“At turn two I had massive oversteer and the tyres only came in really towards the end of the lap. “So I was just waiting for the second run then. There were no mistakes as such. Turn two maybe a tiny lock-up, went a bit wide.”
“But to be honest, I don’t really get it, why I couldn’t match Lewis’s times in Q3. It didn’t feel like I was gaining much grip from previous sessions. I think even Q2 felt better. So a few questions mark for me what really happened.”
Bottas joked that given the long run to the first braking zone at the start in Sochi, he might be better off starting from the second row of the grid: “Maybe I was just playing games and wanted to start third…”
Valtteri Bottas parked at P2 stand despite being 3rd
A rather awkward moment happened after the qualifying round when Bottas parked his car behind P2 banner, where Verstappen was supposed to park his car.
Whereas Bottas was supposed to be at P3 stand, later the banners were switched by Formula 1 associates to make it “factually correct”.
