SAKHIR, BAHRAIN – Valtteri Bottas has admitted that he is “surprised” by his performance in qualifying for the Formula 1 season opener, which he sees alongside former team-mate Lewis Hamilton on the grid.
Mercedes showed serious problems with porpoising on Saturday, with the W13 breaking the pace of rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. Meanwhile, Bottas’ new team, the perennial poor Alfa Romeo, enjoyed an impressive result in which both Guanyu Zhou and Finn made it past Q1.
Bottas continued his run to reach Q3, which now stretches to 102 consecutive appearances. Of course, this amazing race looked a formality while he was driving for five seasons for Mercedes, but few expected him to qualify his replacement, George Russell at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.
A radiant Bottas said on the paddock, “I told the team this morning, ‘it’s time for 102 today’, and they were all there, so it’s great!
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“[I was] surprised, yes. Of course in the test, when the car was working, one could get the feeling that it was not bad. But now, according to FP1 topics, we have no problems [since]. It was smooth, it’s beautiful to look at. So yeah, a bit of a surprise.
“I imagined a good move to have the team somewhere in the middle, which means the 10th. In fact, being able to get a few more places is better than what we expected.
“Absolutely [there’s potential to go further]. Of course, it’s not easy. That’s the hard part. When you’re in the top 10, best of all, it’s complicated. But why not? We are in this place now and we need to make sure we get our best.
“It makes me happy. It gives me a lot of hope. When I finish P18, I would have to climb a little bigger mountain … there is still a mountain, but it is not Mount Everest anymore.”
During his time at Mercedes, Bottas was often praised for being a helpful team-mate to seven-time world champion Hamilton. After Hamilton’s spiky period came running alongside Nico Rosberg, who the couple has seen several times, Bottas was the perfect foil, taking on his role as number 2 driver.
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At Sunday’s unexpected meeting on Sunday, Bottas said, “We’re starting next door. It’s pretty cool! I just saw him and we both laughed. It’s going to be fun.
“If anyone had told me in Bahrain that we should start alongside Lewis, I would take it! But this is the beginning. This is the starting point of our journey. We need to make sure we look ahead. It’s exciting. ”
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