Valtteri Bottas has admitted he’s not satisfied with qualifying in fourth as the Mercedes failed to compete with Ferrari in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix as the Scuderia shut out the front row.
Bottas stunned everyone to claim his first victory since 2017 in Australia last time out but was unable to match the top three for pace, especially the Ferrari pair. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel secured a qualifying one-two for the early season favourites.
Bottas qualified in a time of 1:28.256 but was way off Leclerc who got pole in 1:27.866 and the Finn admitted he wasn’t best pleased but it could’ve been worse.
“P4 is not a very satisfying result, but it’s not a disaster either,” said Bottas.
“I was only a few hundreds off of Lewis and I think the Ferrari was just quicker today, so Pole was probably out of reach for us today.
Ferrari were favourites going into Melbourne but failed to really make an impact as Mercedes dominated but finally showed what they are capable of and the Finn acknowledged that.
“Ferrari showed strong pace throughout the weekend, but it didn’t really come as a surprise; they clearly found the solution to the issues they had in Melbourne.”
Read more about:
Today
Popular on GPBlog
1
Albon jokes about return flight with Verstappen: 'I'll sleep on that plane'
1195 times read
2
Red Bull Racing seeks last-minute change in 2026 engine regulations
1076 times read
3
Russell was suprised by Verstappen actions in Jeddah
1049 times read
4
Verstappen did not curse when notified of penalty, but was still censored
954 times read