Bottas happy: 'The balance was actually very good'

Mercedes was very successful during the first day of the Russian Grand Prix. Both cars of the German racing team finished on top of the ranking during the first and second free practice.

Whereas Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to regain the lead in the world championship this weekend, Valtteri Bottas outperformed his teammate twice on Friday. The Finnish driver, who will race for Alfa Romeo next season, provided confidence heading into Saturday afternoon's qualifying session.

Bottas satisfied with first day

Bottas was therefore satisfied with the results he set. "You could always go better, but if I look at the timings and based on the feeling, it was a good day from the first run," he stated at Autosport.com. "I had a good confidence with the car and the balance was actually very good, so all we had to do were minor adjustments during the day."

It allowed Bottas to look ahead to the rest of the weekend. "I really could focus on the driving and finding small gains here and there, but on both short and long runs I was really, really comfortable," he said.