Valtteri Bottas explains how Mercedes conquered weaknesses to take Silverstone pole

British GP

Bottas explains how Mercedes conquered weaknesses to take Silverstone pole

He beat Lewis Hamilton by 0.006 seconds!

Matthew Scott

Saturday 13 July 2019 19:14

Valtteri Bottas praised his Mercedes team for helping to overcome the W10's weaknesses after pipping Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton's four-year run of securing pole position in his home race was ended on Saturday as Bottas took his fourth Saturday success of the year – more than any other driver in 2019.

Mercedes appeared to be on the back foot heading into qualifying as Ferrari secured a one-two placing in FP3, but the Silver Arrows secured their seventh front-row lockout of the year.

"From the very beginning since the first practice the feeling was quite nice," Bottas said.

"There was definitely room for improvement in the rear of the car, in the entry of corners.

"We managed to make it a bit better but it's still the weakness in some areas. We've made a massive jump already."

Bottas only beat Hamilton by 0.006 seconds, having failed to improve on his time on his final flying run, and was relieved to see his team-mate just fail to better him.

"It feels very good; reminds me why you do this, these feelings," he said.

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"It's been pretty close all weekend and today with Lewis and [I am] really happy to get a good lap and get on pole.

"I knew the first lap was good, but it was not perfect and honestly I should've improved in the second run.

"I didn't get it together, lost out in the first part of the lap. It's not easy to get a good lap together, it's very easy to make mistakes and everyone was struggling a bit, so happy to get on top."