Valtteri Bottas admitted he was just lacking confidence in his car when it mattered during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, with his car becoming more of a handful in the final stages of Q3 that left him third on the grid.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer ended up 0.718 seconds down on his pole-sitting team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and 0.388 seconds behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel after losing stability in his W08, but despite lacking on the one-lap sprints on Saturday, he has expectations of better race pace on Sunday.
“Firstly, a big congratulations to Lewis for his 65th pole position today,” said Bottas. “It’s a great achievement to match [Ayrton] Senna.
“I was really trying hard, but it was a tricky day for me. I struggled with the balance of the car and wasn’t really happy in FP3. We made some changes and the car was much better in qualifying, but then in Q3 when it came down to getting those last hundredths and tenths, the car became unstable again. I just couldn’t get that lap together.
“The long runs seem okay though, so once again, I’m expecting it to be very close in the race with Ferrari. It’s all about tomorrow.
