Zhou Narrowly Misses Q2, Cites Improvement Need

F1’s latest: Bottas blames yellow flags for Q2 miss; Zhou sees room for slight improvement.

F1 Debacle: Early Exits for Both Drivers in Italian GP Qualifiers. Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou faced premature eliminations in Q1 during the Italian Grand Prix qualifiers, with their final attempts thwarted by yellow flags, finishing 19th and 20th respectively.

It was a disheartening end to a session where Bottas’s F1 car had potential for a Q2 spot. This outcome complicates tomorrow’s race; however, with Monza being conducive to overtaking, the team aims for advancement on Sunday.

“I feel we could have achieved more today, so being in 19th is disappointing. My first fast lap was fairly decent, and with the track conditions improving, I had every chance to make it to Q2, but the yellow flag towards the end of Q1 removed that possibility,” Bottas remarked.

“Free practice three was tougher than yesterday, prompting us to revert to Friday’s settings for qualifying. The car felt much better, but ultimately, it was down to luck, and unfortunately, the final run was cut short by a yellow flag, so I couldn’t improve.”

“It’s still unclear where we could have ended up as, overall, it seems we are in a slightly better position than last weekend. For tomorrow, managing the tyres will be crucial. I’m hopeful for opportunities to catch up with our competitors and attempt to improve our track positions.”

For Zhou, consistently trailing in Monza’s practices, reaching Q2 seemed a stretch, yet he could have been “closer.”

“Today’s qualifying was quite frustrating because we know we could have done better. My last lap started promisingly, with an improvement from my previous laps – until cars ahead began veering off track, forcing me to slow down and ruining my lap,” Zhou explained.

“As a result, I couldn’t set the lap time I was pacing for. I’m convinced that without these incidents, I would have secured a better starting position and been much closer to Q2. Despite the challenging qualifiers, the car performed significantly better than this morning: we’ll carry this improvement into the race and aim to learn as much as possible.”