Bottas Sees China Race as Best Shot for Points

Valtteri Bottas targets a strong finish in China, eyeing his first points of the season as his main opportunity.

Valtteri Bottas is having a great weekend in China. The Stake F1 driver made it into SQ3 during the Sprint Shootout, and he has reached his first Q3 of the season in qualifying. He now hopes to be in the points and believes this is his best chance of the year.

“It was a smooth session, I’m pleased because it’s the first time I’ve made it to Q3 this season, so it’s good to see the progress made and it was close at the end of the session with Hülk, so tomorrow should be fun,” Bottas stated.

“Tomorrow will be our best chance so far to score points. It’s realistic, but we will need to execute everything perfectly, and that’s what I expect from every team member.”

Guanyu Zhou was eliminated in Q2 after a mistake at the hairpin: “I was a bit surprised, but not totally as I locked a wheel. That ended my lap in Q2. We made some changes but it was hard to anticipate the issues we had in that turn.”

The Chinese driver is confident he can move back into the points zone: “I think we can move up from where we are as there’s a lot of potential. There will be a lot happening in the race, with strategy, tires, but I’m sure it will be a good day.”

He thanks his fans for their unwavering support since the start of the weekend: “It was even more than I expected. I knew there would be fans and it would be full, but it’s wonderful to see them cheering me on every lap, especially during tough times. I felt even more energy.”