Bottas doubts Austria F1 pole was possible even without ‘messy’ Q3
Valtteri Bottas believes pole position was out of reach for Mercedes even without a “messy” end to qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix o൩n Saturd🔯ay that left him a provisional P4 on the grid.
Bottas finished the final stage of Formula 1 qualifying at the Red Bull Ring over half a second adrift from pole-sitter Charles 𝔍Leclerc, having complained about traffic and time management during his final run of the se♑ssion.
Valtteri Bottas believes p꧟ole position was out of reach for Merced🗹es even without a “messy” end to qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday that left him a provisional P4 on the grid.
Bottas finished the final stage of Formula 1 qualifying at the Red Bull Ring over half a second adrift fro🅷m pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, having c🐈omplained about traffic and time management during his final run of the session.
“It was a bit of messy Q3 in terms of traffic,” Bottas explained af♔ter qualifying. “We left already quite late for the first run. There were some cars backing off and everything but the first run was all good from that side.
“In the second run, everybody more or less parked on the last sector. We did have a bit of an issue wit🦹h the communicati♐on, so the message for me was that I was going to make it to the line super-close, so in the last corner, after Leclerc got ahead of me, I was right behind him in the last corner.
“I was going super-slow, so I got a very poor exit out of the last corner and loไst quite a chunk of time into Turn 1, plus the tyre preparation wasn’t there, after cruising around in Sector 3 on the ♈out lap.
“On the last run I couldn’t get them into the sweet spot and it was a bit messy. We’ve already had aℱ debrief and discussed▨ the communications, so for sure we learned something today in terms of the information I need to get a good preparation.”
Bottas will rise💛 to third on the final starting grid on Sund♚ay after Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was hit with a post-qualifying penalty.
Asked if he thought pole was possible without the late Q3 issue𝓀s, Bottas said: “I don’t think so. When I saw the time I thought we couldn’t match that.
“Also, we’ve seen the data, and the gap is too big. We’re still quicker than Ferrari in all the co𒁏rners, but they are making more gains on the straights and on this track they’ve been really strong.
“For me the maximum, for me, would have ꧑been P2 on the grid. I’m P3, so 🧸it’s not a disaster and it was a lot worse in Montreal, for example.”
