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Bottas and Zhou look forward to Belgium GP

Bottas looks forward to Spa: 'Belgian GP often unpredictable'

27 July 2023 at 07:34
Last update 27 July 2023 at 08:50
  • Toby McLuskie

The Alfa Romeo team had a strong performance in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Zhou Guanyu qualified on P5, while teammate Valtteri Bottas grabbed the seventh starting position. However, the result in the race was severely disappointing, partly due to dramatic starts from both drivers. The Alfa Romeo drivers want to forget Hungary quickly and are looking forward to the race at Spa-Francorchamps.

"Racing in Spa has always been enjoyable for me, and I have been on the podium three times there. It’s a great place to bring the first part of the season to the end," Bottas said. "As a positive, we got confirmation that the fine tuning that has been done ever since we brought the new aero package has been working." The Finn also says that the first 11 races of this season have been disappointing, but that he is confident about Spa and the rest of the season. "TWe have seen in the past how
races in Belgium can often be unpredictable, and on top of that, this will be a Sprint weekend: we will need to be at our very best from the very beginning to catch any potential opportunity to do well, to go into the summer break with more points added to our scoreboard."

Zhou Guanyu also prefers to forget Hungary quickly. He is also looking forward to the race at Spa and the subsequent summer break. "Hungary didn’t go the way we had expected,as an unfortunate issue with the brake system strategy during the starting procedure compromised my race, pushing me at the back of the
field, and Valtteri’s as well," said the young Chinese driver. In the Hungarian GP, Zhou tapped the rear of Daniel Ricciardo's AlphaTauri after his poor start, which in turn caused a collision between the two Alpine drivers. The Chinese, like teammate Bottas, is looking ahead and sees plenty of starting points to start the second half of the season strongly.