Valtteri Bottas “Pleased to be in Q3” For Second Week in a Row

Valtteri Bottas has qualified eighth for Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, marking a second consecutive Qualifying 3 appearance for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN. Progress has been excellent for the Swiss team, after spending the majority of 2021 fighting to get out of Qualifying 1.

Setting a lap time of 1:29.183, Bottas will start on the fourth row of the grid for the second race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia, and is happy with Alfa Romeo’s consistency:

“I am pleased to be in Q3, especially with our performance: we were very consistent, made good progress in each session and got a good spot on the grid for the race. The main thing today, though, is that Mick is ok after the heavy shunt. We hope to see him back in a race car as soon as possible.”

The Finn further explained that the team were unsure how competitive the C42 would be at the circuit, and that there was nothing left of the tyres at the end of the session – “Coming into the weekend, we weren’t sure whether the track layout would suit us, so to have a solid qualifying as a team is positive. I was perhaps hoping to be a couple of places higher, but everyone was so close: we stuck to our plan, which was to only use one set of tyres for Q3, and by the end there was nothing left.”

“Still, we delivered some good laps and I feel we are definitely in the fight that will be outside the top two teams. We can take the challenge to everyone around us tomorrow and I am looking forward to what will be an interesting race.“

“We need a good start – we have been working a lot on them here and they feel better already – we need to keep position on lap one and then take any opportunity that may come from there on.”

Zhou Guanyu – “Let’s see: the race could be chaotic, if last year’s is anything to go by“

Image: Joao Filipe / DPPI.

Zhou Guanyu, the only rookie on the 2022 F1 grid, put in a fantastic performance on Saturday to put himself alongside Lando Norris for Sunday’s race in thirteenth place. Bottas has certainly been a good role model for the Chinese driver.

“Before I look at my performance, I am relieved to see both Nicholas and Mick being fine after their crashes: this is the most important thing,” Zhou claimed.

“I am very happy with my performance this evening, especially as my expectations coming here were quite conservative: this is a relatively new track for me, it’s so quick and it was the first time I drove an F1 car on a street circuit, so to go to Q2 and have a realistic shot at Q3 is a very positive feeling,” the Alfa Romeo driver continued.

“I improved from session to session throughout the weekend and that’s the important thing: the red flag in Q2 compromised our plans and, in the end, I was left with one set of tyres, but I am happy with thirteenth. This is a challenging track, you need to push to the limit and you’re on a very thin edge between a great lap and a mistake: to have a clean qualifying session here as a rookie is really good, and to be closer to my team-mate and the top guys is even better.”

“As for tomorrow, let’s see: the race could be chaotic, if last year’s is anything to go by. I’ll need to keep out of trouble and see how much progress I can make, but I think points are realistic.”

Alfa Romeo are one of many teams that have made some great progress during the transition to the 2022 regulations; and getting both cars in the points on Sunday is definitely an achievable goal for the red-and-white-themed outfit.