Valtteri Bottas initially qualified eighth for the German Grand Prix but inherited seventh due to Nico Hülkenberg’s post-session penalty, but the Finn felt he should have taken that position on merit but for traffic.
The Williams Martini Racing driver felt it was a consistent session for himself at the Hockenheimring, having been a top ten contender in each of the three phases of qualifying, and missed out on seventh to Hülkenberg by 0.020 seconds.
Bottas admits that Williams are missing some grip compared to the three teams ahead of him on the grid, but felt he pretty much got everything he could out of the FW38.
“It was a very consistent qualifying session from us as a team,” said Bottas. “It was a very close session, as expected, but the balance of the car felt good and we managed to get the tyres to work better.
“We are missing a bit of grip compared to the cars in front so I think we more or less got the maximum from the car today. I had some traffic in the last sector on my Q3 run which cost me a few hundredths, so I could have been seventh, but apart from that I’m pretty pleased with my qualifying today.”
