Bottas: "I can’t really say that qualifying was the biggest thing that I improved"

Valtteri Bottas was able to challenge his teammate and rival Lewis Hamilton in the 2020 qualifying sessions. Sometimes the Finn beat the Brit and was mostly close if he didn't win. Although not much of it happened on Sunday, Bottas thinks he improved his race pace more in 2020 than he did his qualifying.

Bottas finished second in the championship in the eventful 2020 season. He took pole position five times and often he got close to Hamilton but just lost out. However, he was 124 points behind his teammate in the championship.

Statistics show that Bottas is missing out on a lot of race pace compared to Hamilton. However, the Finn says he has grown the most in race pace in 2020. RaceFans.net quotes Bottas: “It was extremely close many, many times this year [in qualifying] and even in top three as well. We had good qualifying battles with Lewis."

Bottas drove stronger races than before

Bottas continues: “Obviously in the races more often, as the points show, he got the upper hand. But I can’t really say that qualifying was the biggest thing that I improved. I would say actually the race pace overall this year was a little bit better. But obviously, there’s always more work to do.”

Bottas is aware of the fact that once again he has not achieved his goals. The Mercedes driver is trying to stay positive and learn lessons from last season. Next year he will try again.