Valtteri Bottas expects to improve on Saturday in Melbourne

On a diagram similar to that of Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas had been the only one to put on the ultra-soft tires to achieve his best time in EL1 this morning in Melbourne, Australia, but more than five tenths behind the British three-time world champion.

Subsequently, the Finn was unable to prevent the Ferrari SF70H Sebastian Vettel to insert himself between the two W08s in FP2, and concludes his day with a stable gap of five tenths against his teammate.

The old pilot Williams admits not having found the perfect formula at Albert Park. “Overall it was a good day today,” Bottas said. We still have some work to do with the balance of the car, but we drove today without any problems.

For my part, I really feel like I can take a step forward tomorrow. It will be a very busy evening for us tonight with all the data to study to see where we can improve but it is an encouraging start. As far as our pace goes, it's just testing. We'll see exactly where we are tomorrow. »

A satisfactory selection of tires

For the first meeting of the year in Australia, Pirelli had chosen to bring its softest compounds, namely the ultra-soft, the super-soft and the soft. A selection considered positive by Valtteri Bottas.

“These tires are the right choice for this race, explains Bottas. All the softer compounds behave very well. Everyone is pushing to the limit, as we've seen a few times today. This track is always very dirty at the start of the weekend, but you get used to it. »