Valtteri Bottas says he has been left “puzzled” to be the slowest driver in qualifying as he suffered a disappointing exit at the end of Q1 on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix.
Bottas ended the session in 19th, ahead of only Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who failed to log a lap time after retiring early in the outing.
For the second consecutive race, Bottas was out-paced by team-mate Zhou Guanyu, who set a lap time that was two-tenths faster – however the Chinese driver also dropped out in Q1.
“I’m a bit puzzled, really, it didn’t feel like there were any major issues, so I have no answer,” Bottas said.
“Tomorrow, I hope there’s going to be some action, some Safety Cars, but let’s see.
“There was a bit too much understeer in the car but it didn’t feel that should cost us half a second from where we think we should be, so I’m not really sure, it’s a bit odd.
“For sure on the lap I felt the tyres had hit the sweet spot I had a bit of traffic but that just cost me a couple of tenths, not half a second, so I’m not entirely sure.
“I think that even without traffic it would have been quite difficult to get through to Q2, which is not what we targeted and it’s not where we thought we’d be, so we need to have a look.
“So, there are a few question marks in there.”
The result marked the first time this year that Alfa Romeo suffered an exit in the first segment of qualifying.
The disappointing performance comes at a weekend in which the Hinwil-based outfit arrived with some car upgrades, including a revised front wing.
Zhou praised the impact of the new parts following Friday practice and insisted that they seemed to be a step forward.
Bottas confirmed that the upgrades have been working as they should, suggesting that the issue regarding a lack of pace runs deeper into the car.
“We can see that everything on the wing is working as it should, so I’m not convinced that’s the issue, because it did feel like an improvement and the numbers show it.
“Compared to the competition we still seem a bit slow on the straights and we’re not bad in the corners. Maybe that’s just the wing level we’re running.”
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