Bottas beaten by "near to perfection" from Hamilton
The Finn complained of his Mercedes being "a bit snappy"
Valtteri Bottas has described the British Grand Prix pole lap of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton as "a perfect lap".
Bottas was magnanimous in defeat as Hamilton racked up a seventh Silverstone pole position with a record-breaking time of one minute 24.303secs.
The Finn, who qualified second after ending the session just over three-tenths behind the six-time F1 champion, said: "The car was feeling pretty good, the balance of the car was drifting a bit more towards oversteer.
"I don't know if the track temps were getting higher, but with both runs in Q3 I really struggled to attack the slow-speed corners as I had done before, and in turns 12, 13, I started to struggle with the rear end, it was a bit snappy.
"At the same time, Lewis had a perfect lap in the end, or at least near to perfection. It was a pretty impressive lap time, and I just couldn't quite match it with the balance I had otherwise it was okay."
Despite losing out to Hamilton, Bottas is planning to use the Briton's victory from second on the grid in 2019 as motivation.
He added: "I think my long-run performance this weekend has been really good.
"I believe there will be opportunities. Obviously, Lewis last year managed to win it from second place with a different strategy from me so everything is still wide open and no doubt the guys will try to mix it up from behind so we will see."
Before you go...
Hamilton: Silverstone qualifying "like juggling balls whilst you're on a moving plate"
Stunning Hamilton smashes Silverstone lap record to grab British GP pole
Related
More F1 news
Latest F1 news
Recommended by the editors
Nurburgring 24 Hours
'Total madness': Why Nurburgring 24 Hours is the craziest race in the world
Nurburgring 24 Hours
Nurburgring 24 Hours: Start time and watch live as Max Verstappen bids for victory
Mercedes
F1 star reveals Mercedes quit option after horror crash
Max Verstappen
Red Bull mechanic reveals Max Verstappen's big brain secret to F1 success
Races
-
Grand Prix of Australia 2026
-
Grand Prix of China 2026
-
Grand Prix of Japan 2026
-
Grand Prix of Bahrain 2026
-
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2026
-
Miami Grand Prix 2026
-
Grand Prix du Canada 2026
-
Grand Prix De Monaco 2026
-
Gran Premio de Barcelona-Catalunya 2026
-
Grand Prix of Austria 2026
-
Grand Prix of Great Britain 2026
-
Grand Prix of Belgium 2026
-
Grand Prix of Hungary 2026
-
Dutch Grand Prix 2026
-
Grand Prix of Italy 2026
-
Gran Premio de España 2026
-
Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2026
-
Grand Prix of Singapore 2026
-
Grand Prix of the United States 2026
-
Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2026
-
Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2026
-
Las Vegas Grand Prix 2026
-
Qatar Grand Prix 2026
-
Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2026
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Editorial & corporate information
Avenue HQ
10–12 East Parade
Leeds
LS1 2BH
United Kingdom Regional correspondence
View contact page