Bottas: Average gaps to Hamilton have been ‘tiny numbers’

Valtteri Bottas is happy with his qualifying efforts against Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton during the 2019 season, with only “tiny numbers” splitting the pair.

Hamilton leads Bottas 12-6 in the qualifying head-to-heads this year but both drivers have each claimed four pole positions, while the average gap between the duo on a Saturday has averaged just 0.147s.

Bottas heads into this weekend’s United States Grand Prix knowing that the title race is now out of his hands, with Hamilton needing to score just four points in Sunday’s race to wrap up his sixth world title in Austin.

“We’ve had many tight sessions between us, there haven’t been big gaps between us as the averages show really tiny numbers,” Bottas said.

“There are a lot of variables and things can shift quite quickly but the overall performance could always been better.

“There have been mistakes from my side, that cost me better starting positions for the races.

“Mexico is a good example of that, where I stepped over the limit trying to find all the performance from the lap but that can happen.”

Hamilton, who has not been on pole since July’s German Grand Prix, insisted he is not “unhappy” with his qualifying performances this year despite conceding it has been one of his weaker areas.

“This year, I’m not unhappy with my qualifying, I generally feel I’ve punched out decent laps,” Hamilton explained.

“But not like Singapore last year and more often than not, it’s still not been good enough for pole.

“But it has still be relatively solid. We’ve been on the first two rows quite consistently, this year, so it’s still be pretty decent.

“I’d say Sunday is the thing I’ve been most proud of. It’s been stronger than last year. That’s good to see.

"The goal has always been to keep consistency and build on other areas and races is one of those and we’ve stronger all year through the races.

“Areas we can still improve on for next year - how we go about doing that, I don’t know, but I do know I have the best people around me to do that.”