Bottas “gutted” to miss out on Spanish GP F1 pole after Turn 10 mistake

Bottas will start Sunday’s race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from third on the grid, 0.132s off teammate Lewis Hamilton who secured the 100th pole position of his F1 career.

None of the top three was able to improve on their final runs in Q3 as track temperatures increased and the wind picked up, leaving Bottas trailing the two title contenders.

Reflecting on qualifying, Bottas revealed he made a major mistake at Turn 10, which most likely cost him top spot.

“I was always expecting to have a close qualifying and I’m gutted because in the first run, which was the fastest run for the top three cars at least, at Turn 10 I had a bit of a snap at the apex and lost a bit more than a tenth so… those kinds of things there are annoying, but can happen,” Bottas said.

“Overall the pace was good, the speed was there, it was all about the fine details at the end and I couldn’t quite get it right today.”

Only Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc could improve on his initial Q3 lap, as track conditions appeared to have deteriorated.

The Finn suggested the likely reason for drivers being unable to improve was down to the wind.

“Really felt that the Q3 run two was a bit slower, felt like corner by corner just losing time a bit, I was really looking forward to it as I made a mistake in Turn 10 at run one, but it didn’t come I think it was the conditions, maybe the wind, but the cars are obviously sensitive to wind direction, strengths, gusts, so one run to the other can be quite different”, Bottas added.