Valtteri Bottas has conceded he struggled to match Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for outright pace having missed vital practice work over the French Grand Prix weekend but was still thrilled to secure a front row start at Paul Ricard. The Finnish driver was forced out of the majority of FP2 on Friday afternoon due to a water leak with his ‘2.1’-specification Mercedes engine before seeing most of the one-hour final practice on Saturday washed out by a heavy rain shower. As a result, Bottas feels he never quite caught up Mercedes teammate Hamilton for optimum pace over a single lap so was content with ending qualifying just over one-tenth of a second off of the pole-sitter. “It was...
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