Bottas ended the day fastest after edౠging out Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.027s in second practice, nearly three-tenths clear of Red Bull’s Max 🦩Verstappen.

Track temperatures soared at over 60 degrees Celsius at times on Friday but Bottas was happy to be able to unlock some coꦿmpetitive pace from his Mercedes, despite warmer conditions often proving to be something of an achilles heel fo💦r the team.

“Honestly, it feels like being in a Finnish sauna,” Bottas said. “It’s a good comparison,🍰 especially when you stop between the runs, you get the heat soak, and it really is like way more than 60 degrees, 70 degrees in the cockpit.

“It’s sweaty, but ouཧt on-track at least you get a bit of air. But it makes it quite tricky with the tyres, obviously, overheating. But honestly, it didn’t look or feel too bad compared to the oth🅰ers.”

The👍 tight and twisty nature of the Hungaroring was tipped to better suit Red Bull’s car bu⛎t Mercedes’ early performance has left Bottas feeling cautiously optimistic about its chances this weekend.

“I don’t think it’s a bad start for us todꩲay,” t🧜he Finn said.

“It is hard to predict. I think lately ✃we’ve been making improvements when it’s hot. It’s not so bad. Today is proof and I don’t think we’re in a bad place. But you never see all the cards from other teams on Friday.

“I have to say in Practice 1, with the balance, we had quite a lot of work to do but we quickly reacted, a😼nd it starts tꦕo feel quite OK,” he continued.

“But for sure there’s more𓆏 to come, no doubt, and it’s good to see that most likely we’re going to be in the fight for pole 🅘tomorrow so that’s really motivating.”

An🥃d Hamilton, who heads into the weekend trailing title rival Verstappen🐬 by just eight points in the championship, was equally encouraged.

“I’m qu🧔ite optimistic with the extr🎶eme temperatures right now,” he said.

“I’m opt🦂imistic because I think we can definitely improve the car balance-wise. And if we can do that, it puts us in a better position for the race as well.

“But of course, it’s much nicer to drive when it’s cooler. These tyres are not happy, most of the time anyways, so they definitely don’t like this te💖mperature.”

The seven-time worldꦅ champion added: “But ever꧒yone is in the same boat there.

“To see Valtteri and I just on the front row pace-wis﷽e, I think that’s great for💞 the team, and we’ll only improve on that.

“So, we’ve got some work to do tonight to t🥀ry and see how we can finesse the car a little bit more, but it’s a good star🐻t.”