© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Quali didn’t exactly go according to plan for Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, with the duo qualifying in P2 and P3 respectively.
Max Verstappen took pole and Valtteri Bottas says he wasn’t happy with his final lap.
“We saw in Practice 3 that Red Bull in the hands of Max is pretty quick,“ said the Finn.
“I think the main issues was that we couldn’t get the soft tyres to work properly as they should all the way to qualifying. The medium tyres were working better than the softs for me.
“I think we have made some improvements looking at the results we haven’t got the best out of the tyres. Looking at the lap itself I wasn’t happy. The balance was not quite perfect.
“Towards the end of qualifying I was struggling a bit more with the front end with the track temp cooling down the it made it difficult to improve.
“I think Red Bull were able to optimize for the final session of the qualifying,” concluded Bottas.
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Lewis Hamilton, who returned to Formula 1 this week, after missing the last race due to COVID-19, hopes his race strategy can help him reclaim his usual top spot tomorrow.
“I’m really grateful to be back with the team for the end of a strong season,” said the Briton.
“It’s been a difficult weekend to get back into the rhythm. I struggled with the balance but gave it my all, congrats to Max, it’s a great way for him to seal the year and hopefully we can give them a run for their money tomorrow.
“You can’t always start first, this makes it more exciting. It’s a difficult track to overtake, but with the strategy, I’m excited to see how I can turn it around.
“It’s normally a one-stop here, I don’t think a two-stop works with the long pitlane, everyone will try and minimise it, so we’ll see,” concluded the seven-time champion.
