Valtteri Bottas says his final lap in qualifying for the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix was “not a lap I’m very proud of” as the championship contender ended the session sixth.
Bottas spun exiting turn two on his first attempt in Q3, narrowly missing hitting the concrete wall, before his second attempt was littered with mistakes. His lap-time of 1:11.101 was almost nine tenths-of-a-second off the pace of pace-setter Sebastian Vettel.
“I made a mistake in the first run of Q3, had a snap and ended up spinning out of Turn 2,” said Bottas. “I was lucky that I didn’t hit the wall, but it put me on the back foot for the second run.
“My second lap was pretty messy – I had a number of lockups and didn’t do a great job in the corners. It’s not a lap that I’m very proud of, but mistakes happen. I need to learn from today, move on and come back stronger tomorrow.”
Despite his worst qualifying of the year, Bottas remains confident that he can move forward during the race, owing to Mercedes’ impressive long-run race pace demonstrated during Friday’s practice sessions.
“The car was feeling good and our long run pace looked strong on Friday, so I’m confident that there will be some opportunities in the race tomorrow. Overtaking is possible on this track and we’ve seen great racing here in the past, so I’ll go flat out and try to get as many points as possible.”
