Valtteri Bottas fell one-hundredth of a second short of qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix. The Sauber driver starts sixteenth and expects to compete for points in the race.
His partner Guanyu Zhou showed the twentieth fastest time and explained that Oscar Piastri hindered him in the decisive attempt.
Valtteri Bottas (16th): “After the sprint we adjusted the settings. The handling of the car has become much better, so I am happy.
The first fast lap in qualifying went smoothly, but in the second I got stuck in traffic. Moreover, I was too close to my teammate on this lap, so the attempt was not the cleanest. I was only a hundredth short of qualifying for the second part, but that’s what happens in racing sometimes.
I am happier with the car than on Friday and in the sprint we saw that the pace difference between the teams was minimal. In this situation we can compete and we must strive to earn points.”
Guanyu Zhou (20th): “The car slid a bit during the lap, but I probably still had a chance to fight for fifteenth.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work in the last round. Before the start of the lap I tried to create a gap for the car in front of me, but Oscar decided to overtake me and in the first corner we ended up next to each other. At that moment my circle was already spoiled.
After the sprint we made quite a few changes to the car. They seem to be working as we hoped, so we’ll see what we can do in the race.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
