Mercedes left to rue failed set-up change for Bottas

Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes will be left to ponder on set-up changes on Bottas' car which ultimately backfired on Saturday during qualifying. The Finn qualified a distant fourth to his teammate and the Ferrari's, well down on the pace set by the leading three.

Having struggled in comparison to his teammate on Friday, Bottas' side of the garage opted to make some adjustments overnight to help close the gap between teammates which ultimately backfired for the Finn, who was left with little confidence on the brakes during qualifying.

“Today has been difficult,” Bottas told the media after qualifying. “We tried some set-up changes in FP3 from yesterday, it was better in the corners but under braking we lost performance.

“It became very easy to make mistakes and have lock ups. I didn’t have any clean laps this morning. In qualifying, it was getting better and better, but for example Q3, first run, had a lock-up into Turn 1, lost half a second.

“Then it was difficult to approach the last run as I just needed some kind of a lap to secure fourth. I haven’t been very comfortable with the car.

“It is really high speed, low downforce, but still very hard braking. A lot of kerbing on the chicanes and exit kerbs, still you need some stability for high and medium speed for the last sector. It is difficult. It doesn’t feel like I’ve found the best set-up.”

Bottas will also have to cope with the liklihood of playing the team game for the remainder of the season which may well start tomorrow during a tightly contested Italian Grand Prix as Mercedes look to overturn the momentum Ferrari are mustering on home soil in the race.