Valtteri Bottas said he could not explain why he lost pace to team mate Lewis Hamilton in the final phase of qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.
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The two Mercedes drivers were closely matched through most of qualifying. Hamilton had a difficult moment earlier, almost failing to make it out of Q2, while Bottas said his own session had felt straightforward.
“For me there was not so much going on, actually. It felt pretty straightforward from my side. I was quite fortunate that the incidents around me didn’t really affect my runs,” Bottas said.
“Q1 and Q2 were pretty good. The car felt right and the pace seemed to be there. Q3 was different.”
Bottas improved his lap from Q2 to Q3, but Hamilton made a much larger gain. The Mercedes team mate ended up six-tenths quicker, and Max Verstappen also beat Bottas on the timesheets.
“Q3 was a tricky one,” Bottas explained. “On the first run I didn’t feel the tyres were ready. Exiting the last corner when I started the lap I had a big snap and already lost a couple of tenths down to turn two. At turn two I experienced massive oversteer and the tyres only came into the window towards the end of the lap.
“So I was waiting for the second run. There were no clear mistakes — maybe a tiny lock-up at turn two and I ran a bit wide. But honestly, I don’t really get why I couldn’t match Lewis’s times in Q3. It didn’t feel like I was gaining more grip compared with the earlier sessions. Q2 arguably felt better, so there are a few question marks for me about what happened.”
Bottas added the remark with a smile that the long straight to the first braking zone at Sochi makes a second-row start less of a disadvantage, joking: “Maybe I was just playing games and wanted to start third…”
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