Bottas: The decision to postpone qualifying was correct

Sauber drivers regret the postponement of qualifying and prepare for a busy Sunday…

Valtteri Bottas (16th): “As much as we would like to conduct qualifying, I think the decision to postpone it is the right one. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the fans in the stands, whose passion and energy remained unchanged despite the rain and the continued postponement of the session. Hopefully we can catch up tomorrow.

Before the sprint we unfortunately understood that it would not be easy to gain back positions – we lacked speed and we suffered from overheating of the tires. However, I managed to keep the Aston Martin drivers behind me, which was a surprise for us.

I hope the extra break before qualifying will help us get more out of the car. We have a busy Sunday ahead of us tomorrow with qualifying and the main race.”

Guanyu Zhou (17th): “It’s a shame we couldn’t qualify on Saturday due to the bad weather, but I have to say the fans here are simply incredible. Their dedication and endurance during rain and long breaks is astonishing.

In the sprint I started from the pit lane after the team adjusted the settings, and although the car felt better than in yesterday’s practice, we still didn’t have the pace. However, we were able to make some progress by overtaking two Aston Martin drivers and improving our starting position. I hope we can please the spectators tomorrow with an interesting race.”