Bottas ‘disappointed but glad’ with front row in hectic qualifying

Valtteri Bottas says securing a front row start and lockout for Mercedes came with mixed emotions but he is eager to use his position at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Finn missed out on pole position by over one quarter of a second to teammate Lewis Hamilton in Q3 at the Hungaroring but was pleased to qualify ahead of both Ferraris who had shown superior pace at the track in the dry during practice.

While Bottas was downbeat to miss out on his second pole position of the season but is keen to use his front row start to attack while also keeping the Ferraris behind.

“We did a pretty job but obviously we had to do something with Lewis [attacking],” Bottas said having held provisional pole position before Hamilton’s final lap. “It was not an easy session, very easy to make mistakes and in the end it came down to one lap.

“From my side, I felt the lap was pretty good, I was up on the lap time, just last three corners felt really low grip, sliding a bit and crossing the line knowing I was on pole at the moment, I was waiting for the answer and then I saw Lewis just pipped me.

“Of course at that point I was disappointed and still am but I am really glad as well we can be here in Budapest one-two on the grid because track position here means a lot here in the race.”

Bottas is eager to break his winning duck having claimed five podiums so far this year all finishing in second place.

“I think from our numbers we were the third quickest team on the long runs – so I think tomorrow we really need to get everything perfect from the race start,” he said. “It’s going to be really hot, a really long race. Overtaking is difficult but there’s many opportunities for the cars behind to get us if they have more speed. So we really need to be on it.