Bottas: We couldn’t unlock the car’s potential

None of the Alfa Romeo drivers managed to get through to the second session during qualifying on the Japanese circuit. Valtteri Bottas was only a few hundredths behind; the Finnish driver set the 16th fastest time and his teammate only the 19th. However, both hope to compete for higher positions on Sunday.

Valtteri Bottas (16th): “Today we couldn’t fully utilize the potential of our car, and this is certainly disappointing, because in all the sessions leading up to qualifying we were able to set a good pace and the car made a good impression.

Unfortunately I was hampered by red flags on my first attempt, and in the second, although the lap was actually quite good, we lost to several direct competitors. Only there was traffic in the first sector.

In the evening we analyze everything and try to understand what exactly happened in order to prepare ourselves as best as possible for the race. Our pace over the long series of laps is encouraging, so I still think we will have a chance to gain ground and move forward.”

Guanyu Zhou (19th): “The car made a good impression, although we lost a bit of the pace today. Unfortunately, when I had the chance to move on to the second session, I got caught in traffic, and in Turn 9 I had a dangerous moment. All this made me lose my chance to continue the fight.

Overall, however, I myself made a lot of mistakes in the first session and I think the result does not reflect our capabilities, which we have shown since the start of the weekend. We should have risen to higher positions.

I think we could possibly even challenge for the qualifying final given how quickly the track conditions changed from session to session.

Today was not our day and although it is difficult to start from the back row, we will attack and do everything we can to move forward.”