Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes needs to improve its one-lap pace after Ferrari moved clear during the second practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday evening.
Bottas finished second to Daniel Ricciardo in FP1 and while he improved his time in FP2, he was comfortably overhauled by both Ferrari drivers, as Kimi Raikkonen led a 1-2 for the Scuderia.
Bottas wound up third quickest, 0.563s behind his compatriot, and reckons Mercedes has work to undertake on the softest compound tyres in order to maximise its W09.
“This weekend is difficult because the track improves so much from one session to another,” said Bottas.
“We could already see it today, you feel more grip with every single lap and the car balance is changing so we always had to make estimates for the next session and the next runs.
“Our main goal today was to get the softer compounds to work.
“On the Supersoft we did pretty much the same time as on the Soft, so getting the most out of that compound is the key thing for tomorrow.
“The car feels okay, but we still need to find some pace, especially for a single lap. So we still have some work to do.”
Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton finished behind Bottas, in fourth position
“It's been a normal Friday, we've got through all our programme,” said Hamilton.
“It looks very close between all the teams and we definitely have got some work to do to try and see if we can eke out to be ahead of the others.”
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