Hamilton and Bottas between disappointment and hope for the race

The Mercedes appear at the top of the qualifying basket for the Chinese Grand Prix: Valtteri Bottas third, Lewis Hamilton fourth. However, the performance gap between the Silver Arrows and the Ferrari (half a second) surprised observers as well as the defending champion team on Saturday in Shanghai.

For Lewis Hamilton, this place on the second row is the result of a " hard day ". “The car got away from us (sic), the pace was no longer there after the good results in free practice. Ferrari definitely improved their car between Friday and today – maybe they hid their game yesterday – and today they were very fast. I aborted my last attempt in Q3 because, five tenths behind, I knew I was incapable of keeping up with their pace."

Ferrari were just too good, says Lewis#ChineseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/usi6FQcGgQ

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 14th

The Briton even ran to the regulation weigh-in without removing his helmet or greeting the crowd. “It won't be easy to beat Kimi (Räikkönen) and Sebastian (Hag) tomorrow, they are also faster on the straights. Overcoming them may be an arduous task. I don't know if we can compete. » The rise in temperatures predicted for the race could, however, reshuffle the cards, at least that is what the outgoing champion hopes.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas also tried to thwart Ferrari's plans, without success. The Finn is not looking for excuses. “We came here wanting to aim for pole, but the situation was different. I think I have extracted all the potential from my car. Maybe we didn't make the tires work ideally, but I think even without that we wouldn't have been able to beat the Ferraris. This is disappointing because the gap is significant. We have work ahead of us. »

3rd on the grid for tomorrow

Ferrari's too quick today, but tomorrow counts. Will be an interesting race and I'm looking forward to it!#F1 #ChineseGP # VB77 # VB100 @MercedesAMGF1 pic.twitter.com/Y4Kkzyb7uG

- Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) April 14th

The wearer of number 77 relies on strategy to overcome the Reds. “We were more comfortable with hard tires, and we will start the event with Softs (the hardest compound given by Pirelli in China), that could benefit us. »

Their boss Toto wolff continues the analysis of the behavior of the tires on the Mercedes. “On Ultra Softs (the tire used for qualification), we lacked grip overall, while Ferrari had no less grip. We have seen a number of differences in the GPS trajectories and we need to analyze this carefully. » Cool temperatures could partly explain this difference.