Valtteri Bottas was eliminated in Q2 of the Japanese Grand Prix and will start 13th. The Alfa Romeo F1 driver is not unhappy with his performance, judging that he made the most of his C42 on the Suzuka circuit.
“It really feels like we took everything from our F1 and left nothing out” Bottas said. « Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for a place in Q3, and we missed it by less than a tenth of a second. »
« My two laps in Q2 were pretty good, but it shows how close the midfield is. A few hundredths of a second can make such a big difference: it’s disappointing, but we’re not far away and we know that we will fight for the points. »
He now hopes to be able to seize his chance in the race: « Tomorrow will really matter and the weather forecast is not yet clear. We looked good in the rain yesterday so I wouldn’t mind a bit of wet weather to grab a few places. »
Zhou succeeds on his debut on the technical track of Suzuka
Guanyu Zhou will start two places behind his teammate and for his debut in Japan, he is also satisfied: « I’m quite happy with what I was able to do today, especially since I only had one session to get used to this track in dry conditions, it was my first time on this very technical circuit. »
« We made good progress throughout the day and things looked quite promising, but Q2 was really tight. We were so close to Q3, but in the end it was a bit too far for us. We gave it our all. . »
« We are still in a position to aim for the points tomorrow – and, if it rains, bets are off. We looked strong in the wet on Friday, if it rains a bit tomorrow we could have even better chances, and it could be a really fun race for everyone. »
