Bottas frustrated by qualifying: 'Not entirely satisfied'

Valtteri Bottas had an excellent result in Friday night's Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying. The Finn was unable to outperform Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but with a third fastest time he was satisfied.

Speaking to Sky Sports, the Mercedes driver said he had a difficult first free practice. "It was a bit tricky in FP1 and didn't quite feel comfortable with the car especially in sector 1 and got a bit better in qualifying. The main places I was loosing to Lewis was turn 1/2 and the straight. So, not fully satisfied," he said. 

Looking at his past results, however, Bottas did not do badly at all. The Finn came very close to Verstappen's second time, but he just didn't manage to improve it. "Still a good starting place. A lot to play for and a lot of action in lap one."

Important role for Bottas

Bottas has an even more important role at Mercedes this weekend than usual. Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's race five places back on the grid due to a combustion engine change. The German team will therefore be hoping that Bottas can take care of business upfront, so that Hamilton loses as few points as possible.