Mixed Emotions for Bottas After Reaching Q2 in Mexico

Bottas remains uncertain about his 15th place, citing potential for a stronger result despite reaching Q2 at the Mexican GP.

Valtteri Bottas Delivers a Solid Performance in Mexico GP Qualifying, Securing 15th Place

Valtteri Bottas put in a strong qualifying effort at the Mexican Grand Prix, finishing in 15th place, ahead of a Red Bull and a McLaren. While pleased to have made it into Q2, the Stake F1 driver believes he could have achieved an even better result if not for an interruption.

“I have mixed feelings about how the day unfolded. The positive aspect is that we reached Q2—it’s been a while since we’ve managed that, so it’s really good to see for all of us,” Bottas said.

“I want to thank the entire team for all the efforts they put in to get us to this point, and I hope this gives us a boost of motivation for the final part of the season.”

“However, I think we could have done better than 15th place—we were unlucky with the red flag in Q2. I was on a good lap, in the final sector and close to finishing when the red flag came out.”

“I believe that lap would have brought us closer to the top 10, which is a shame. At least we made a step forward compared to the previous weekend, and we seem to have good pace here. We’ll do our best tomorrow; the race could be very interesting.”

Guanyu Zhou, meanwhile, faced a challenging session, qualifying 20th: “The session was disappointing because we struggled with grip throughout. Even though the track improved significantly, we couldn’t find the pace we expected as the session went on.”

“We’ll need to dive into the data to understand what’s holding us back and see how we can address it before tomorrow. Starting from the back makes the race tougher, but we’ll be ready to seize any opportunities that come our way. With a long run to the first corner, we aim to make up ground right from the start.”