Valtteri Bottas will start the race from eleventh place on the grid, just behind team-mate Guanyu Zhou
Valtteri Bottas is confident of doing well in tonight’s Canadian GP despite a disappointing practice session and a not-so-good qualifying. For the second successive weekend, Valtteri Bottas was out-qualified by his rookie team-mate Zhou Guanyu and his absence from Q3 stretches to three races.
Things haven’t been ideal so far for Bottas in Montreal. On Friday in Montreal, Bottas said Alfa Romeo had identified the suspension problems that caused his Baku struggles but he then missed out on running in FP2 because of a technical issue, and then, come qualifying, Bottas once again seemed bizarrely off the pace.
Bottas’ Alfa Romeo team-mate, Zhou kept his nose clean and did a stellar job to reach Q3 for the first time, while Bottas fell 0.104s short of a place in the top 10 shootout.
“I was just a bit unlucky with the timings, the car felt really good in wet conditions, just a bit unlucky. The track was improving a lot with every lap, so getting another lap in would have a pretty huge impact”, said Bottas ahead of tonight’s race.
Bottas was the second driver to take the chequered flag at the end of Q2. He lost a heap of time on his final flying lap by locking the inside front tire into Turn 1 and running a compromised line through Turn 2.
Bottas was the second driver to take the chequered flag at the end of Q2. He lost a heap of time on his final flying lap by locking the inside front tire into Turn 1 and running a compromise that probably made the difference between Q2 and Q3. Bottas will start his eighth Canadian GP from 11th place on the grid.
Where do things stand ahead of the Canadian GP?
After securing maximum points in Baku, Red Bull dominate the drivers’ standings. Max Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship with 150 points, closely followed by team-mate Sergio Perez on 129. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has dropped down after registering a DNF in Baku and now occupies third place with 116 points.
In the constructors’ championship, Red Bull lead the table with 279 points, Ferrari are much behind in second place with 199 points. Mercedes have significantly reduced the gap between them and Ferrari. They occupy third place having earned 161 points.
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