Bottas "optimistic" for Sunday race despite disappointing qualifying

Valtteri Bottas remains optimistic about Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix despite Mercedes qualifying on the second row, behind the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel.

Bottas will start fourth for the race, days after he was confirmed to be racing for Mercedes next season, and after the session he spoke to Sky Sports, saying: “It felt pretty good, but today I struggled with turn one because of the wind. You make mistakes faster there. My lap was fine too, but I also made a mistake in my fastest lap. P3 could have been possible, but Ferrari was just too fast."

However, despite the disappointment of qualifying, the Finn still believes Mercedes can get a good result during the race.

He added: "What do the cooler temperatures mean? That it is colder. I am optimistic for Sunday, since our race space was fine. Fighting for the victory from P3 and P4 is certainly possible. So that is very positive. Sunday is the most important thing and we will see what happens in the race."