Bottas ‘couldn’t trust rear’ amid worst dry Q3 in three years

Valtteri Bottas says he lacked trust from the rear of his Mercedes W12 after his worst dry-weather qualifying result in three years.

Bottas was in contention up front throughout the session but had a scruffy first lap in Q3 and could then muster only eighth on his second push effort.

It marked his worst showing in dry conditions since he crashed out of Australia’s season-opening qualifying session in 2018.

“P8 definitely not what I was aiming for today, especially with the feeling starting the qualifying and how everything was feeling,” he said.

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“In Q3’s first run I went into Turn 2 and had really sudden snap from the rear end, and that really continued through Sector One.

“I lost a lot of time, and actually, the same happened in round two, It was never there.

“I couldn’t trust the rear end of the car and it was something that I didn’t feel in the whole qualifying before that so, what happened we still need to investigate. So, for sure, disappointing.”

Bottas outlined that the nervousness was not in line with what the team had been suffering from in Bahrain.

“It was a bit different [to Bahrain],” he said. “Now it was more in corner entries, which I’ve never really had it before. We need to look first of all that everything is right with the car. So, it was not ideal.”