Errors at final two corners costs Bottas chance to beat Mercs to pole
Friday 17 October 2014 15:26, UK
A rueful Valtteri Bottas admitted pushing too hard at the start of his final qualifying lap led to the mistakes which cost the chance of stunning the Mercedes' in Sochi.
The Williams driver was 0.077 seconds up on eventual polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s time through the first two sectors of his final qualifying lap but made mistakes on the crucial final section of the lap, locking up into the penultimate corner and then running wide into the run-off at the final turn.
As a result Bottas failed to improve his time and stayed third on the grid behind the all-Silver Arrows front-row. Reflecting on the near-miss afterwards, the Finn admitted he didn’t know he was within striking distance of Hamilton and pointed to overcooking his soft tyres in the opening phase of the lap.
“I didn’t know at that time that it was close to the pole, I only knew at that time how it was compared to my best lap which was not bad,” Bottas explained.
“I knew I had one more lap to go and maybe looking back I took a bit too much out of the tyres at the beginning of the lap and the last sector became a bit more tricky and as I was gaining time towards the end compared to my best it became more difficult in the last few corners.
“I think I risked it a bit too much in the last two corners and went a little bit wide and here when you go offline it is really slippery and that was it.”
While naturally disappointed to make mistakes on the lap, Bottas thinks he would only have been able to dislodge second-placed Rosberg from the front-row rather than toppling Hamilton too and claiming his first F1 pole.
“Of course. It is not nice to make a mistake, but in the end I think today it cost one place maximum," the Finn suggested.
“I think the mistake was taking too much out of the tyres at the beginning of the lap and that is what made me struggle at the end of the lap. So the lap before I am quite happy about that.”
In any case, Sunday’s race will be the third time in the last four races that Bottas has headed up the grid’s second-row and puts him in position to claim a podium finish.
What team-mate Felipe Massa would give for such for such a promising prognosis, however. The Brazilian veteran will start the race from the lowly confines of 18th after a suspected fuel-pump problem left him off the pace in Q1.
“The only thing I know is that there was no power at all from the engine. It was a problem with the fuel pressure I think that it was maybe not giving enough fuel and I had no power,” Massa told Sky Sports F1.
“So I was talking to them and trying to do everything possible to get back the power from the engine but it was not possible. I am so disappointed because the car is so quick, so competitive and we start P18. It is also true that it is better to have this problem in qualifying rather than the race. The race is tomorrow, let’s try to do the best we can.”
One comfort for the 33-year-old is that, having already unlocked all five of his penalty-free engines for the season, he isn’t expecting to have to take a sixth unit this weekend: “I think so [the engine will be okay]. But if we change it we will go back to an engine I have used already.”
