Valtteri Bottas “not really sure what was going on” with lack of pace

During the first practice session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit Bottas crashed at turn 19, bringing his session to a close giving the mechanics a job to prepare the car for FP2.
 
But the Finn couldn’t manage higher than P4, lacking behind session leader Hamilton by more the a second.
 
Bottas said: “It was a tricky one, had a bit of an off moment in FP1 which ended my running a bit early, but I really was feeling OK until then.
 
“I just lost the back end in one of the corners, and obviously here with no run-offs, you pay the price. It can happen I guess.
 
“In P2, not sure really what was going on, was lacking pace every single run, every tyre compound, so I’m not quite sure if everything was right in the car. We need to have a look.
 
“It felt like I couldn’t go any quicker, but I was one second off the pace. A bit tricky.”
 
Bottas does however expect a close battle between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull as Max Verstappen finished 0.184 behind Hamilton with Sebastian Vettel a bit further behind.
 
“For sure you need to push always, and the biggest push in Q3, obviously try and minimise the damage in practice,” he added.
 
“I think it’s going to be close between the three teams, but Lewis was definitely on form today.”