Valtteri Bottas: “It’s nice to see we are in a condition to fight for Q3”

Valtteri Bottas believes the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN can contend for a place inside the top ten in Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after a productive Friday for the team.

The Finn ended thirteenth fastest in the first session but improved significantly to seventh in the second session, held under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Bottas admitted he expected there to be more bumps in Singapore than there ultimately was, and going into the rest of the weekend, he hopes to find even more pace so they can fight for Q3.

“It’s been quite a positive Friday, a clean day in which we could go through all our programme nicely and do lots of laps,” said Bottas.  “Our pace looks quite decent and it’s nice to see we are in a condition to fight for Q3 tomorrow.

“It was interesting to have our first outing with the new cars here: the track felt a bit bumpy, but I was expecting more. I was still able to enjoy the track and had some good fun.

“Of course, there’s more pace to find tonight: analysing the gaps between the tyre compounds will be crucial, but we had a good start and we can build on that.”

“You hardly have any time to catch your breath” – Zhou Guanyu

Team-mate Zhou Guanyu was experiencing the Singapore circuit for the first time on Friday, and the Chinese driver admitted conditions were ‘quite extreme’.

Zhou said he had done preparation to adapt to the heat and humidity that drivers were faced with, but the track itself also posed problems for him as he struggled to catch his breath between the barriers.

Heading in the rest of the weekend, Zhou believes he can have a strong Qualifying session, although he knows he will have to improve after ending seventeenth and fifteenth across the two sessions on Friday.

“In general, our day has been smooth, a good start: we need to do another step forward tomorrow and we’ll be in a position to have a good qualifying,” said Zhou.  “It was interesting to have my first taste of Singapore, and the conditions were quite extreme.

“This track is really hard, you hardly have any time to catch your breath as you have corner after corner and they’re all complex: it’s hard, but also really enjoyable. The humidity and the heat you feel in the cockpit are an added challenge: I was prepared for this, but it’s something you really feel.

“We can have a similar climate in China, but it’s been a while since I was in these conditions! It’s not only the physical side that is interesting here: the mental side is equally important on such a technical track, a bit like in Miami.

“I am looking forward to qualifying tomorrow: it will be special for me to race in front of my family and all the Chinese fans who are here.”

Zhou Guanyu experienced the Singapore circuit for the first time on Friday – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd