F1 News
Valtteri Bottas describes "pretty messy" qualifying as he expects difficult race
Valtteri Bottas will line-up for the Singapore Grand Prix in P5 after what he described as a "pretty messy" Q3 session. It's the Finn's lowest starting position since the Canadian Grand Prix. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, managed to split the Ferraris to grab a front-row grid box.
"This is a disappointing result because I think we had the possibility to achieve more today. I felt much more comfortable in the car in qualifying than I did in any other session of the weekend. I was actually pretty happy after Q1, thinking that we might be able to fight for a spot on the front row today. But the Ferraris just kept getting quicker and quicker, they kept improving their times and ultimately we just couldn’t match them," Bottas said.
"Unfortunately, Q3 was pretty messy for me; I never managed to get the ideal tyre preparation because I was stuck in traffic on both of my out-laps, which compromised my timed laps."
The 30-year-old is expecting a tricky race day in Singapore. He hints that he'll need a safety car to make some advances on what is a hard track to overtake on due to the nature of the street circuit.
"Tomorrow will be tricky, starting fifth is far from ideal, but we’ll go into the race with a fighting spirit. There’s usually a lot of action in Singapore, so we will see if there are any opportunities and try and make the best of it," Bottas added.