Valtteri Bottas has been showing a consistent form since the beginning of the season and today he showed that Alfa Romeo is ready for the challenge by setting the seventh fastest 1:20.355 right behind former teammate Lewis Hamilton´s 1:20.252.  His teammate Zhou Guanyu will start from the fifteenth place after a tricky qualifying session for the Chinese driver.

MotorLat and other media outlets got the thoughts of the Finn wafter the Qualifying session where he shared his feeling from the session and perspective for tomorrow´s race. On the overall feeling he said: “Good, I think it was pretty close. I am pleased. The lap was good. I think without the upgrades we would not have been seventh today.”

And then added about the upgrades the team included for the race: “The car is looking as good as expected but it´s hard to judge because we always knew this track with the loses, we have in turn 3 and turn 9 in high speed corners is not ideal for us. So, yes, I´m pleased.”

On the tyre behavior, Valtteri mentioned “Overheating. The best grip you have in the lap is turn 1 to 3 then after that is downhill. It´s sensitive, so let´s see I think tomorrow if it's even hotter, then it's going to be a lot about who can keep the tyres in good condition. it´s not an easy track to overtake….”

Asked about the strategy and whether one stop would do Valtteri said “I personally doubt. I think it´s tricky.”

Alfa going up in the pecking order and Mercedes going down turn both teams into rivals fighting for being the best of the rest. When, he was consulted over Mercedes improvement he told the media: “Definitely (they have) made a step I think which is obviously not great for us but they made a step I think we made too but they had bigger gains but let´s see next week. I think next week will be suitable for our car because it´s mainly slow speed corners and our car is really good in slow speed corners.”

On the upgrades the driver further added his opinion and didn´t hide his surprise over Haas position being the team without upgrades  “It´s good to see. Like the upgrades we had in Imola definitely you could feel them and the same here. Only thing is confusing that Haas they haven't had any updates and they are still there sometimes.”

The ten-time winner believes a podium is just a matter of time if they keep working hard: “I think so. We need to make sure that we are the best of the rest and with a hint of luck, it can happen.”