Bottas: Ferrari has the quicker car

Valtteri Bottas says that Ferrari was purely quicker than Mercedes in qualifying for the German Grand Prix. The Finn had briefly snatched back pole position in the dying stages until a superb lap from Sebastian Vettel meant it was the German who was on pole for his home grand prix.

Speaking after qualifying in the top three press conference, Bottas admitted that Mercedes were lacking pace compared to their rivals.

“It was a tough battle for the pole but I think, in the end, Ferrari were just quicker today, especially Sebastian,” he said.

“As for my last lap, if I’d do the lap again there hundreds of a second here and there, maximum, 0.1s but they were just a bit too quick.

“It was a good lap, especially in the last sector. There was something I missed in the first run of Q3 but the feeling with the car was quite nice, so it was a good lap.”

Mercedes would have been hoping for a much better showing on Saturday having lost out at Silverstone where they were considered favourites, but Bottas hasn't lost hope of a strong result just yet.

“It’s an important race for us as a team, it’s one of our home races, for Mercedes and Daimler, so it is a big one. But this is where we’ll start from, we need to make the most out of it.

“At least I’m starting second, it’s going to be a long race tomorrow and I’m sure Lewis can still come back to the first positions. We’ve seen many things happening, so we won’t give up and I’m still sure we can have a good result tomorrow.”