Valtteri Bottas: It seemed like there was an opportunity to do better

The Sauber team again performed unsuccessfully in qualifying in Spielberg – Valtteri Bottas showed only the eighteenth fastest time and Guanyu Zhou the twentieth. Both drivers indicated that the car had too little speed on the Austrian circuit.

Valtteri Bottas (18th): “Not the easiest Saturday for us. We knew that it would be difficult to count on points in the sprint given the starting positions, so we considered this session as a test session for Sunday’s race.

Given the high track temperature, we had some issues with overheating tyres, which certainly didn’t help. We lacked pace, but the team was still able to learn something that would come in handy for Sunday’s race.

Unfortunately, qualifying was also difficult. We managed to improve the balance of the car a bit, but we lack speed on this circuit. We made progress and it seemed like we had a chance to do better, but it didn’t work.

“Unfortunately, that’s how it went today, but tomorrow we have the chance to win back – we don’t give up. In the race we will try to do everything in our power and get the most out of the car and its possibilities.”

Guanyu Zhou (20th): “Challenging and equally disappointing day. The sprint didn’t go as I had hoped; there were problems with the pace. Despite changing the settings for qualifying, qualifying was also difficult.

I believe that the Austrian circuit does not suit us in the same way as in Barcelona. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough pace today to get out of the first part. However, it is important to stay focused and keep improving the car. The changes we have already made have made the car more predictable, which usually helps during the race.

It just won’t happen, but we will do everything in our power. I hope we can fight for higher positions tomorrow.”