F1 | British GP | Bottas "Thought We Have A Small Advantage At The Start" by using the soft tyre
Mercedes-AMG's Valtteri Bottas reflects on his first ever F1 sprint qualifying and being able to maintain P3 as well as talking about key takeaways that better prepared him for better results for tomorrow's race.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas' Valtteri Bottas began on the Soft tyre, unlike the cars in front of him, but after failing to make ground in the early stages of the race, he switched to tyre conservation mode to finish the 100km sprint.
A P3 for VB after that bold tyre call. 👊 Two cars in the fight at the front tomorrow can make the difference. pic.twitter.com/VLwqBSaKVi
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 17, 2021
Bottas will start tomorrow's race in third on the grid which is the same position he took in qualifying on Friday.
Fortunately, the sprint race was on Bottas' luck as he gained another valuable championship point as he continues to narrow the gap on the drivers ahead of him.
How about that for a Saturday?
— Mercedes-AMG Motorsport (@amgmotorsport) July 17, 2021
Lewis and Valtteri come home in P2 and P3 in @F1‘s first-ever Sprint Qualifying. Bring on the #BritishGP, then! 👊#WeLivePerformance #F1 #MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/Zd99slRXjx
Bottas comments post-sprint qualifying, "Choosing the Soft tyres, we thought we might have a small advantage at the start but I couldn’t gain any places through the first few corners and from then on, it was important not to kill my tyres because the Softs are much more sensitive than the Mediums."
He adds, "I suffered some blistering but I could manage it well and I’m happy we tried something different."
He continues, "It was nice to have another race today, obviously not as meaningful as tomorrow, but I hope the fans enjoyed it, even if personally I prefer qualifying to the sprint."
He concludes, "Tomorrow will be an open race, it’s cool that we’ve got free choice of tyre compounds so we’ll see a mix of strategies which should make things interesting."
Saturday 🇬🇧🏁
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) July 17, 2021
3rd in the sprint qualifying race thing so 3rd on the grid for the main day tomorrow 👊
Read about the day: https://t.co/L5sDbxI47w#VB77 #F1 #BritishGP @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/GIyg10DvE0
