Valtteri Bottas believes the fight for pole with Lewis Hamilton was dictated by “fine details” at the French Grand Prix.
The Finn had been quicker than the Briton for much of the weekend, but when it mattered in Q3, the world champion produced another special lap to claim his 60th pole for Mercedes.
“I think, in the end, ultimately Lewis managed to get some better laps and deserves to be on pole,” Bottas explained post-session via Crash.net
“From my side, in Q3 I felt my first lap was OK, but the wind direction changed throughout qualifying.
“In Turns 8 and 9 I’ve been struggling a bit all weekend; at some point, I found some good lines there but then they didn’t work when the wind direction changed.
“It’s just fine details here and there, there are no massive things. In the second run, I was just a bit unlucky with no cars ahead, so I had no tow at all, so I was losing time in all the straights.”
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“It’s unfortunate because I was hoping to be on pole, but second is a good place as there’s a long run into Turn 1,” he stated.
“I think the race start is going to be one of the keys for me tomorrow, so I’ll focus on that tonight.
“It has been a really strong package we’ve had here this weekend, that’s obviously enjoyable and hopefully, it will be the same tomorrow,” Bottas added.
“If we had been on the soft tyre it would be a big challenge,” he added. “I actually think that with the medium, even though it’s a bit warmer, based on what we experienced yesterday, it felt pretty robust.
“All cars at the front are on the same tyre, so no drama there.”