Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Autodromo do Algarve, 2020

Losing pole to Hamilton after strong practice is “very annoying” for Bottas

2020 Portuguese Grand Prix

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Valtteri Bottas admitted he was annoyed to lose pole position to his team mate following his strong performance in practice.

The Mercedes driver headed all three practice sessions, was quick in qualifying and set provisional pole position on his first run in Q3. However Lewis Hamilton turned the tables on him at the end of the session, taking pole position again.

“It is annoying,” Bottas admitted after qualifying. “It’s very annoying, that’s the word.

“But practice sessions, being at the top, it doesn’t matter anything. Always I try to reset from each session to focus on the coming one, and especially after practice three you always need to reset and obviously take all the learnings you can from the practice and try to do things even better.

“Knowing that you have the pace, it’s annoying, but that’s how it is. Quickly, I have to forget that. It’s only qualifying and the race is tomorrow, and I know I will have the speed.”

Bottas said he should have opted to make two timed laps in the closing minutes of qualifying as Hamilton did. He confirmed it had been his decision to go for a single flying lap but that this proved to be the wrong decision.

“It was a decent lap,” says Bottas. “Not perfect.

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“It’s been tricky here to get really clean laps this weekend because of the way the track is. But the lap was good. I think ultimately I should have gone for two timed laps.”

Bottas says he chose to run on the medium compound as he believed they were quicker than the soft tyres around the Portimao circuit.

“Obviously at the end we decided to go for the mediums based on just a feeling,” he explained. “Previously in qualifying the mediums actually felt a tiny bit quicker than the softs, so that was the reason.

“Then it was choosing if we do two timed laps with a cool down lap in between or just one timed lap. Obviously with one timed lap you can have less fuel in the car, but you might struggle with the tyre warm up. I went for that. It was my decision to go for one timed lap because it worked in Q2, but apparently it seems like doing two timed laps for Lewis was better.”

Having successfully beaten his team mate to the first corner at the Nurburgring, Bottas is wary that starting on the dirtier side of the grid tomorrow will make repeating that feat more challenging.

“I think for sure it would have been nice to have been on the clean side, on P1,” Bottas says. “But I will do whatever I can from P2.”

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2020 Portuguese Grand Prix

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    13 comments on “Losing pole to Hamilton after strong practice is “very annoying” for Bottas”

    1. I suspect that if it was Hamilton who went for the single lap and Bottas for the longer run we’d be reading almost the same comment about how Bottas wishes he had gone for the better option which Hamilton did. It just seems to always be the same – whichever strategy Hamilton goes on is deemed the “better” option because he ends up on pole or with the victory. In reality I think it boils down to the driver making the best of the strategy they have, Hamilton just seems to be able to nail it when it counts more often than not, regardless of which strategy he’s on.

      1. Several times laps looked the better option on the mediums though

    2. Obviously with one timed lap you can have less fuel in the car

      Compared to a car on lap 1 out of 3. But not compared to a car on lap 3 out of 3, presumably. So if the tyres are going to be better on lap 3…

    3. Very annoying for the fans as well Valtteri that you cannot keep up to your teammate and at least make the race more interesting.

    4. It’s not much of a stretch to say that Bottas is probably the perfect teammate for Hamilton, from both Mecedes’ and Hamilton’s perspective. He only occasionally outperforms Lewis over the course of a weekend (good for Lewis, and good ON Lewis for operating at the level he does), and he nearly always finishes near the top, thus taking points away from their rivals (Max). Great for the whole team, even Bottas. He wouldn’t be getting these occasional wins (9 so far, with Lewis at 38 over the same period) anywhere else.

      1. He’s the perfect team mate for any top driver actually. A guy that delivers, is fast, but just doesn’t have “it” all the time.

        Red Bull would love to have someone like him alongside Max so much that the Hulk talks are stronger than ever and in the short term, is indeed the best option they have.

    5. Bottas should be proud of the job he’s done at Williams and Mercedes, and can leave F1 with his head held high. George only has to sign a “no compete” clause regarding racing against Lewis, and the seat can be his

      1. I think you’re talking about Schumacher Prost Alonso…

    6. It’s got to be difficult for Bottas to swallow this qualifying defeat. He looked quicker the entire mugello weekend but lost out to Hamilton on Sunday. Then he’s looked quicker up until the dying moments of q3 this weekend and he lost out on pole.

      I don’t think Bottas lacks pace.. But he can’t pull anything out of the bag and surprise us. Hamilton consistently pulls them out of the bag whenever he’s not at a 100%. I guess that’s the difference between a 6 time WDC and a race winner

    7. ((Obviously with one timed lap you can have less fuel in the car, but you might struggle with the tyre warm up. I went for that))

      That right there is the difference… and thats probably what ham was experimenting in practice… and nailed it in q. Hence 6xWDC..

    8. petebaldwin (@)
      24th October 2020, 20:25

      Look on the bright side Valteri – at least it means you won’t have to lose the lead tomorrow…

    9. Stick a fork in it Valteri, you’re done.
      Just not good enough.

    10. Only because Mercedes gave Hamilton an extra run so he can take pole instead of Bottas.

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