Despite his disappointment with having been unable to improve his performance after a premature end to Saturday’s second qualifying session, Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas believes that he has “got to be happy” with his performance, despite qualifying P15 for Sunday’s race.
While speaking with the media after the Mexico Grand Prix qualifying session, Bottas, whose last Q2 appearance was at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, stated that his participation in Q2 after such a long time was a positive sign.
However, he lamented the premature end of the session as he believed that he would have been able to improve his performance had he had the chance to complete his lap.
“It’s been a long time that we’ve been in Q2, so that’s good.
“But at the same time, it’s just a shame with the red flag. I was also on a good lap, so I think we should have been better than 15 today.”
Despite his disappointment at losing the chance to improve his starting position for the race, Bottas stated that he was happy with his lap times and the set-up of his C44, especially as he had “probably the slowest car on the grid.”
“I was happy with the laps; I was happy with the setup we ended up with. To get into Q2 with probably the slowest car on the grid, I’ve got to be happy.”
When asked if he believed that the early end of Q2 was a missed opportunity for him, especially after his strong performances during the weekend’s practice sessions and in the first qualifying session, Bottas replied, “Yeah, I think it is.”
However, he acknowledged that such incidents, though unlucky, were a part of the sport, and expressed that he intended to maximise his performance during Sunday’s race, despite his less-than-favourable starting position.
“But with these things, there’s nothing we can do about it. It was just unlucky, but there’s always tomorrow. I think we were in a much better place to fight here in the race than in the previous events.
“I think there’s still all to play for tomorrow.”
He did, however, admit that he expected the race to be “tough”, particularly with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez starting behind him in P17 and p18 respectively. Despite this, he stated that he expected that the pace differences between his C44 and his rivals’ cars would be “a bit less than in previous events” and reiterated his intention to “maximise everything” during the race.
“Yeah, for sure it’s going to be a tough race.
“But I think the pace differences also in the race should be a bit less than in the previous events. We’ll try to hang on, we’ll try to maximise everything, and you never know.”
He added: “But for sure we’re in a better place than last weekend.”
