Bottas - “If I push harder, I’m in the wall”

Valtteri Bottas claimed he was “on the limit but so far off the pace” after finishing a disappointing 10th fastest for Mercedes in qualifying for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Bottas gave F1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton a speed-inducing tow in the first run of the final part of qualifying and then did not get a chance to focus on his own lap as the session was stopped prematurely by a crash involving AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz.

“My pace has been suffering all weekend and I feel like ultimately, something is wrong because I'm on the limit but so far off the pace - if I push harder, I'm in the wall," claimed the Finn.

“Tomorrow will be a challenge but I know anything can happen in this race - I've been here before one lap down and finished back at the front.

"So you never know and for sure, we'll keep trying and I'll just try to understand everything I can tonight and fight tomorrow. “

Asked about having to help out Hamilton he explained: “We alternate and this weekend was Lewis' choice to decide who goes first out the garage so obviously in the first run on Q3 he had my tow.

“In the second run I tried to get a tow from Charles [Leclerc] but there was the red flag which stopped my flying lap.” Mercedes experiment with different set-ups

Mercedes struggled in practice on Friday, finishing with both cars outside the top 10, but the team was able to find a way to improve the performance in the car - at least for Hamilton - who qualified second.

The reigning champion chose a wing set-up with less downforce than Bottas but team principal Toto Wolff does not believe the different wing approach was responsible for the pace difference between the pair.

Wolff said: “I don’t think it was a big pace disparity. Tomorrow it might have a slight effect but the difference was that the car was very tricky all weekend. The rear wing doesn’t explain any of the difference.

“Somehow Lewis found the confidence for qualifying and Valtteri struggled. I think, on a circuit like this one, that is important and you can see in Monaco Valtteri had it and was feeling fine.”

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