The Finnish driver of Alfa Romeo believes that the race rate of the car is even better than the time trial. Charles Leclerc accelerated Ferrari to the pole of Bahrain’s gp.
Valtteri Bottas started the Formula 1 season 2022 nicely in the time trial of Bahrain’s gp. Bottas also accelerated his new stable, the Alfa Romeo, to sixth and get into the season opener race on Sunday.
Bottas missed a second in Ferrari Charles Leclercin peak time. Red Bull’s reigning world champion Max Verstappen leaves the second starting box, and Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz was third.
Red Bull was also ahead of Bottas Sergio Perez and a former teammate, a seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton With his Mercedes.
Bottas was visibly happy with the time trial in an interview with Viaplay Sport.
“I’m proud of the team,” Bottas said, revealing some of the team’s first time trial of the exciting season.
For Bottas, Alfa Romeo’s good pace didn’t come as a surprise, as he said he got the car well adjusted during Friday’s rehearsals.
“The time trial went really well. I also managed to improve the time trial on each lap myself and eventually run a clean lap. Everything went really smooth, ”Bottas continued.
Bottas also expects a good start in Sunday’s race if the team is able to avoid technical problems with rehearsals and winter tests.
“The car is also good for long hauls,” Bottas assured.
“Ferraris and Red Bulls may be ahead of the others, but I think we can fight everyone else. The competition must be forward and not backward. ”
Ferraris and the pace of the Bottas showed that Ferrari’s engines will be strong in the upcoming season, at least in terms of time trial settings.
“We’ve had a hard time for two years, but we’ve done a good job. In that sense, Pile Place now feels really good, ”said Leclerc in an interview with Viaplay Sport.
“We were hopeful in advance, but we still thought Red Bull would be faster than us.”
Leclerc recalled at the end of his interview that the situation could change in Sunday’s race as the pace has to last the entire long race.
“Let’s see how it goes,” Leclerc reflected on the race against the drivers of Red Bull’s cars.
World champion Verstappen went to the time trial as a favorite. He still seemed quite pleased with the front row starting point.
“We’ve had a little trouble with the car’s balance when the car should be made to work in both time trial and racing,” Verstappen revealed.
“Overall, this was still a good day and start to a new era of formulations. I think the competition against Ferrari will be steady. ”
Carlos Sainz, who took the third screen, was relieved. He has been in training several tenths behind his teammate, but reached almost the same pace in the time trial.
“I’m pretty happy with the third place in the time trial after all the difficulties. I’ve had to think really a lot about how to get this car up to speed. There’s been a lot of thinking, ”Sainz said.
The first competition of the World Cup season will start on Sunday at 5 pm Finnish time.
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