Bottas admits Mercedes surprised by Sochi qualifying defeat
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas admits the German manufacturer expected to be stronger heading into the Russian Grand Prix weekend, after Ferrari relegated the Silver Arrows to the second row in qualifying.
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Having swept every single Russian GP so far since the event's introduction in 2014, Mercedes was again considered favourite heading into the Sochi weekend this time around.
Yet Ferrari was quickest in all three practice sessions, and while Bottas looked in with a chance of preserving Mercedes' record at the track, he eventually came up a tenth short in the shoot-out, finishing third behind Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
Asked in the post-session press conference whether losing out to Ferrari in qualifying was a surprise, Bottas said: "Definitely yes - me personally, and as a team.
"Coming into this weekend probably we were thinking it would be better than Bahrain - but so far it's turned out not to be so good.
"Ferrari appears to be doing something different. For us, disappointing not to be on pole - we did a good improvement from yesterday to today but not enough.
"Tomorrow will be a different story, difficult to predict, but it will be close."
Bottas said he wasn't sure the deficit to Ferrari was down to Mercedes struggling to get the tyres working optimally or simply down to the Italian marque having the better car.
"I think before the qualifying the only problems we had was extracting most out of the ultrasoft tyres," he said. "We made it better but I don't know if it is the tyres or the car. For sure, they [Ferrari] have a very good car but we are struggling to compete with them."
Mercedes had taken pole for all three grands prix of 2017 so far, but lost out to Ferrari in two of the races, the Scuderia's car being more competitive in race trim.
But despite qualifying behind the Italian team's drivers, Bottas believes Mercedes can still put on a fight on Sunday.
"I think the changes and the improvements we made from yesterday and today they should help us," he added.
"Obviously we are not confident that we have the quickest car around here. But as we have seen the first three races, we have good race pace and I think it will be same case tomorrow."
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
WTCR's April opener cancelled due to coronavirus
Australian GP issues update on nine F1 paddock coronavirus tests
The harsh realities of being an F1 outcast
Mooted F1 points system like "putting a plaster on a big cut" - Ocon
Bottas: Permanent fix for Sauber F1 pitstop woes "by Imola"
The high-stakes design theory that Sauber hopes is key to 2024 F1 progress
Ferrari announces HP as new F1 team title sponsor
Ferrari "made too many mistakes" for F1 podium fight at Chinese GP
What's been going wrong for Leclerc in F1's tiny margins qualifying game
The plot twist that gave Arrow McLaren’s Ward his first win as team principal
WRC looking to add F1-style team radio to TV broadcasts
Formula E’s new Gen3 Evo car breaks cover
Adrian Newey set to leave Red Bull F1 team
The F1 hero-to-zero dividing line that has never been so thin
How Stroll and Magnussen revealed the scale of F1’s racing and rules problems
Did F1's new sprint format work?
Chinese Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2024
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments