Bottas “not sure how happy Red Bull is” with F1 quali mode ban

Valtteri Bottas doubts Red Bull will be pleased with the outcome of Formula 1’s engine ‘party’ modes as he took a swipe at Mercedes’ rival.

Mercedes swept to a front-row lockout in Italian Grand Prix qualifying and finished eight-tenths clear of the rest of the field, with Lewis Hamilton pipping Bottas to his 94th career pole position.

It came despite a new technical directive coming into force at Monza which prevents teams from using more than one engine mode over a grand prix weekend and outlawing the use of high-performance settings Mercedes pioneered in qualifying.

Mercedes’ rivals, including Red Bull, had hoped the German manufacturer would lose some of its previous qualifying advantage in 2020 but it proved to have little effect on the competitive order on Saturday.

Max Verstappen could only qualify fifth as the highest-placed Red Bull driver as he finished nearly a full second off the pace.

"The pace I had in the long runs and we had as a team, we're looking strong," Bottas said.

"With the engine regulation change for the modes, it's going to be even better for us in the race than before. Hopefully it will be good.

"I'm not sure how happy Red Bull is now with this engine change."

Hamilton, who said he found it ‘amusing’ that Red Bull had pushed the FIA to make the engine mode change, joked: "I don't even think we ever had a party mode.

"It's something someone else made up. Who knows if we even used that mode at Spa anyways?"

After qualifying, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff revealed that the team had been working on a contingency for the technical directive well in advance of it being issued. 

SEE ALSO: Mercedes party on at Italian GP despite F1 'quali mode ban'