“That’s the Most Confusing Part” – Mercedes’ Bottas Bewildered By Huge Gap to Hamilton in Bahrain GP Qualifying

Yet again, it was a qualifying session to relish for Mercedes, who secured another front-row lockout in 2020, this time at the Bahrain Grand Prix. With others taking time to figure out their optimal setups for the fast-paced shootout, Mercedes were able to do very well on the track.

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position, with teammate Valtteri Bottas three-tenths of a second behind him. However, the Finn believes he gave it his all and extracted maximum performance from the Mercedes car.

Perhaps Hamilton was just better in the tricky corners of the intriguing Bahrain International Circuit. Either way, Bottas thought his lap was good enough and was quite clean across all the corners and as a result, was ‘confused’ about the lap timings.

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas believes there were “no mistakes” in his final Q3 lap

Bottas stated, “I don’t really know.

“It felt good, that’s the problem. It feels good and you feel like you’re extracting everything from the car but the lap time is not there. That’s the most confusing part. But I can’t really say much at the moment.”

“There was no mistakes in the last lap, I thought it was really good. It was like small things here and there, there was no one clear corner. So I need to find out but at least it’s another front row lock-out for us.”

Hamilton was pretty much the charts’ leader most of the race weekend, having topped the free practice sessions in terms of lap timings. It was this momentum that possibly helped him build the flying lap that ultimately saw him take pole position.

Bottas thinks there were no underlying issues with his car’s performance

The Mercedes No.77 added and said, “I don’t think there’s any underlying issue really with the performance of the car. I think it’s there and the long runs were good so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

“I was quite surprised when I saw the gap. I think we ended up with quite different set-ups with Lewis. We’l see if that makes any difference tomorrow.”

Regardless, Bottas will have the chance to fight back in the race, which promises overtaking around various corners of the track. As it stands, he is the one serious competitor who could prevent Hamilton from taking home yet another race victory.