Bottas rues Q1 error that cost Bahrain GP pole chance

Valtteri Bottas has blamed a poor first timed lap in Q1 for his inability to challenge Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton for pole position in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Bottas sneaked through the first phase of qualifying as he set only the 11th fastest time of the session and needed to burn a second set of soft tyres to progress.

The Finn has revealed it left him short on tyres in the top-10 shootout, qualifying third, 0.589secs behind Verstappen's one minute 28.997s pole time, with Mercedes team-mate Hamilton also ahead of him.

After struggling with the balance across the weekend, Bottas said: "Practice this morning wasn't easy. We had a lot of issues with the balance of the car and didn't really feel that comfortable.

"I was hoping maybe in the evening session it would be better. It was a bit better but Q1 we went out for a second run on the soft tyres which meant we wasted a tyre set.

"So in Q3 I only had one set of new tyres and it was tricky to compete against Max and Lewis with just one set."

Labelling the session as not being "too bad", Bottas reflected on the tactical advantage enjoyed by Mercedes having two cars at the front compared to the one Red Bull entry due to Sergio Perez only managing 11th in his first outing for Red Bull.

"Of course, we have two cars in the front against Max so I am sure we can cooperate and do something good," added Bottas.

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