F1 | Sakhir GP | Bottas: "This wasn't my best qualifying"
Valtteri Bottas who just kept his pride from denting after securing the nail-biting pole position at Sakhir GP, Bahrain thinks he could have done better if he had the tow.
After a scintillating three Qualifying sessions it was the Finn who sprouted at the top of Qualifying time sheets, after the Friday practice sessions and all the hype created over the weekend so far where the Mercedes driver was beaten by thickest of the margins by his new substitute team-mate and British sensation George Russell.
Finnish driver undermined his Qualifying lap and thinks he could have done much better and might have had more advantage over Russell and he could have improved at T8 and T7.
“It's great to be on pole, I'm happy with that, but this wasn't my best qualifying. My second run in Q3 was decent, but I think there was still a bit of time missing in Turn 7 and 8,” said Bottas in post Qualifying media debrief.
Furthermore, Bottas thinks if he had a tow, he would done even better because of the fact he was the first car on the track he was at disadvantage.
“I was the first car out on track on the final run, so I didn't have a tow and ultimately couldn't improve. It was fairly close in the end, so I'm pleased it was enough for pole position.”
P1 🇧🇭🏁#VB77 #F1 #Pole #BahrainGP @MercedesAMGF1 @F1 pic.twitter.com/tDZJUMw5ua
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) December 5, 2020
Finn also expected George Russell to be right up there and he had anticipated the pace George will have and it was no surprise to him.
“It's great to see George in P2 and that we managed to lock out the front row for the team. I'm not really surprised to see him up there, he kept improving throughout the weekend and particularly through qualifying.”
Valtteri thinks his team is in better position of winning as both of the drivers are starting on the mediums.
“We're starting on the Medium tyre tomorrow, which should put us in a good position in terms of strategy. Max is going to have an advantage for the race start itself with the softer tyre, but we think for the race overall we're on the better tyre.”
Moreover, Bottas has given fans a hope that its easier to follow around this track and we might see some overtaking on Sunday.
“The track is quite bumpy and it's actually fairly easy to follow other cars thanks to the tow, but we're in the best possible position for tomorrow and are looking forward to a fun race.”
