Valtteri Bottas will have to serve a five-place grid penalty at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, but he explains why this is not worrying him.
The penalty was handed to Bottas after he caused a collision that took several cars out at the beginning of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
However, the Finn says Spa Francorchamps is a good place to serve such a penalty.
“I think on this track, race pace is quite important if you compare qualifying pace versus race pace, so we need to focus on that,” Bottas said.
“Whatever we do in practice [we can’t] forget that we still need to try and qualify well. I don’t want to start outside the top 10, for example.
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“Out of all the tracks to have a grid penalty, [Spa] is definitely on the good side of the list because you can overtake if you have the pace.
“Race pace is going to be the key.”
And Bottas believes Mercedes will be close to Red Bull in terms of pace.
“I think we’ll be close. It’s impossible to predict nowadays and it’s quite fine margins between the two teams.
“I think we take all the learnings we can from the last race, especially for me personally, and I’m sure it’s going to be a good battle again,” concluded the Finn.