Alfa Romeo’s chance of Q3 was ruined by a yellow flag – Valtteri Bottas struggles with brakes and loses to Guanyu Zhou for the first time
For Alfa Romeo, Formula 1 qualifying in Bakuwas a clear disappointment. For only the third time this season, the racing team missed Q3, but quite significantly. For Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas, there were only 14th and 15th places in Azerbaijan – and the first team-internal defeat for Bottas.
“Qualifying was a bit strange and we are definitely not where we wanted to be,” said the Finn. Although Alfa Romeo had also experienced a mixed Friday, the drivers were sure that with the updates held back for Saturday, they would still be able to make a big step forward. But this was only possible in theory.
With ninth place, Zhou at least hinted at the car’s potential in Q1. However, the team could not improve in Q2 and finished in the last two places. And according to Bottas, that had several reasons.
For one, there were the brakes, with which the Finn had a few problems in the third practice. “We went to different brakes today, then the problems came. In qualifying we went back to a different set and it was better,” he says. However, it meant his confidence in the car was no longer at the top level it needed to be.
Another problem area was the tyres, from which Bottas could not get everything out. “The whole weekend, the first lap was not good,” he lamented. Therefore, the racing team had chosen a different tactic at the end of Q2: They wanted to do a fast lap, then a slow one and then another fast one.
The first lap worked, but on the second fast lap Bottas’ time was ruined by Yuki Tsunoda, who had triggered a yellow flag in turn 2. “That meant I couldn’t try again. I think I would have improved but it wasn’t meant to be,” said the Finn.
Zhou beats Bottas for first time
The same thing happened to teammate Zhou, who also got stuck in Q2 but at least managed to beat his stable rival in qualifying for the first time this season. “We’ve made a big step forward all weekend and I think we had a lot more potential than P14 today,” said the Chinese.
Wanted more but that’s Q2 for us. Chances were limited due to yellow flags 🟨 on final lap. But that’s Baku… tomorrow is when it counts!#AzerbaijanGP #TeamZHOU pic.twitter.com/IqVuwypeSs
— 周冠宇 | Zhou Guanyu 🇨🇳 (@ZhouGuanyu24) June 11, 2022
He believes a place in Q3 would have been well within the realms of possibility, “although the field is so tight that you can’t really say. ”
“We had prepared our tyres for a good second push lap as we saw they were working best at that moment, but the yellow flag with Tsunoda affected both our cars a lot and prevented us from improving,” said Zhou.
Confidence for Sunday
After qualifying, team boss Frederic Vasseur also has to admit that the result did not live up to expectations, nor did it reflect the team’s potential. “Our goal was to be at the front of the train in the final run and we achieved that – unfortunately the yellow flag didn’t give us the chance to show what we can do,” he frets.
The racing team now wants to concentrate fully on Sunday, where they still expect a lot despite the poor starting position. “We know that our car has good pace and that this track allows overtaking manoeuvres,” says Vasseur. “We expect an eventful Sunday, anything can happen.”
“I think we have good pace for the race. Hopefully we can put it all together and take home some points,” Zhou also says. Bottas joins in, “Our race pace yesterday was good,” he points out. “I’m confident we can make some good overtaking moves tomorrow and move up in the field.”
