Bottas doesn't see Mercedes as favourites: "At least we have made a step forward"

Valtteri Bottas has made a positive start to the race weekend in Imola. He finished at the top of the timesheets in both free practice sessions, and the Mercedes cars seem to be looking stronger than in Bahrain. However, Bottas does not yet see himself and Mercedes as favourites.

He does say that the car feels a lot better than it did in Bahrain. "To be honest, starting this weekend if I compare it to Bahrain how the car is feeling it's definitely better so that is nice but as I said yesterday it is a different track.... a different tyre of circuit and surface and grip level," Bottas told Sky Sports after the second free practice session.

"Happily, the weekend has started in a positive way and the car wasn't far off the set-up. There are still things to be tuned, but overall happier with the car now than three weeks ago," he continued.

However, the problems are still there according to Bottas. "It feels better, it still the same type of issues but less so. It's still not perfect. Hopefully, we will have time to fix it, but at least we have made a step forward," Bottas concluded.