Bottas summoned to F1 stewards for driving too slowly in Q2 at Austrian GP

The Finn safely progressed into Q3, where he would qualify fifth behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Teams were informed ahead of final practice that they couldn't slow down too much between Turns 9 and 10 before starting their laps.

Sebastian Vettel is also under investigation after he blocked Fernando Alonso at the end of Q2.

It appears that Bottas played a role in the aforementioned incident after he overtook Vettel earlier on in his out-lap, before backing up behind Perez.

This in turn forced Vettel to slow down and impede Alonso in the process.

Reflecting on his qualifying performance, the Mercedes driver didn’t understand why the team had gone backwards relative to the first weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

“Yeah, it seemed like we went a little bit backwards from last weekend or others gave more than us,” Bottas said. “I would say maybe a tenth or two, we’re missing from where we should have been, so I don’t know if it’s because of the C5 compound or… Clearly, McLaren has found something so that’s where the pace of the car was today.”

The two-time Red Bull Ring grand prix winner is confident Mercedes will show a better turn on pace on Sunday given that it has focused its car setup on race trim.

“I think race pace-wise we should be in better shape,” Bottas added. “I think all the developing we’ve done with the car setup and everything is aiming a bit more towards the race pace so yeah, for sure we need to learn from today and then I’m sure we can get a good result for the team.”