Bottas who topped FP1, FP2, FP3 and then going into Qualifying topped first two sessions as well but still couldn’t topped the session which matters the most i.e. Q3, thinks others found more gains then him being losing out.

“It was looking pretty good for me, I felt like I had the pace through Q1 and Q2, and both of those sessions went nice and smoothly. But Q3 was a tricky one. I felt like I found some gains but clearly the others found more.” Explained Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas in post-qualifying media debrief.

Furthermore, Finnish driver blamed cold tyres for his poor run in Q3.

On the first run in Q3 the tyres were a bit too cold, so out of the last corner I had a big snap and was already a few tenths down on the run to Turn 2.h

Bottas said his second flying lap felt better and he didn’t make any mistakes like in his first run but he still couldn’t make any dent in the Lewis’s benchmark time.

“I was waiting for the second run and that lap felt better, there weren't really any mistakes so I'm not sure why I couldn't get closer to pole.”

“There are some question marks there, which we'll need to look into in the debrief and figure out why there was such a gap.”

But Bottas is confident that P3 isnt tha place to straight as run down to first breaking zone is very long and he can make up the places.

“But P3 is actually a pretty good place to start here and I think I'm on the right tyre as well. I've started third here before and look what happened, so I'll try and do the same. It's still all to play for.”