With a neat ninth place during the second free practice, Valtteri Bottas concluded a hopeful first day in Barcelona. The Finn even finished ahead of his former teammate Lewis Hamilton, who already expressed fears of not getting beyond Q2 during qualifying on Saturday. Bottas is confident of a positive result for Saturday, though.
After the training day, Bottas revealed he was moderately positive in the press release following FP2: "I think we had a decent day. The car felt better for me in the second practice session after we made a few adjustments, my lap time was improved as well. Now all our focus will be on analysing the data we gathered today, in order to find something more ahead of tomorrow. I like the changes made to the track. My preference is this layout without the final chicane. I think it adds more flow."
'Every tenth can make the difference'
According to Bottas, the field in Barcelona is hugely competitive; "As predicted, the field is extremely close, andy any tenth could be key for a good qualifying. I think we can set a realistic target of aiming to get into Q3 tomorrow."
Teammate Zhou Guanyu thinks the difference between P8 and P20 will be minimal. The Chinese is already looking ahead to Sunday. "The final sector is demanding for the tyres, it willl add some challenges with overtaking and with tyre degradation. It's also quite bumby, but overall, I'm quite happy with it," Zhou said.