Bottas: Wind direction change a factor behind pole defeat

Valtteri Bottas says his failure to land pole position for Formula 1’s French Grand Prix was influenced by a combination of “fine details”, including a change of wind direction.

The Finn had set the pace for much of the weekend heading into qualifying but ended up being beaten to pole by Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas was just over a tenth adrift following the opening runs of Q3 but was unable to improve on his final effort, with Hamilton extending his advantage out to 0.286s as he sealed pole.

“I think, in the end, ultimately Lewis managed to get some better laps and deserves to be on pole,” Bottas explained.

"From my side in Q3 I felt my first lap was OK, but the wind direction changed throughout qualifying.

“In Turns 8 and 9 I’ve been struggling a bit all weekend; at some point, I found some good lines there but then they didn’t work when the wind direction changed.

“It’s just fine details here and there, there are no massive things. In the second run, I was just a bit unlucky with no cars ahead, so I had no tow at all, so I was losing time in all the straights.

“So, I had to make the most out of the last corners to catch up and kind of lost it there.

“It’s unfortunate, because I was hoping to be on pole, but second is a good place, as there’s a long run into Turn 1.”

Bottas says he will focus on the race start overnight, which he has pinpointed as a one of the “key” opportunities to get ahead of Hamilton.

“I think the race start is going to be one of the keys for me tomorrow, so I’ll focus on that tonight,” Bottas said.

“It has been a really strong package we’ve had here this weekend, that’s obviously enjoyable and, hopefully, it will be the same tomorrow.

“If we would have been on the Soft tyre it would be a big challenge,” he added. “I actually think that with the Medium, even though it’s a bit warmer, based on what we experienced yesterday, it felt pretty robust.

“All cars at the front are on the same tyre, so no drama there.”