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Bottas: We are quicker than last year

Bottas: We are quicker than last year

14-09-2018 19:20

Singapore is famously not the best track for Mercedes, although this year Valtteri Bottas believes his team will be more on the pace compared with the other two big teams, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Red Bull are more on the pace this weekend, typical of their package and twisty circuits, as shown by their 1-2 in FP1.

Mercedes are definitely not the best car this weekend despite Lewis Hamilton finishing second in FP2 and winning here last year.

2017 was an eventful race for Mercedes, who were expected to struggle, but a first lap incident that wiped out both Ferrari drivers and Max Verstappen allowed Hamilton to drive a relatively straightforward race to secure the win that propelled him towards the title.

Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas drove well to secure P3, with Daniel Ricciardo the filling in a Mercedes sandwich.

However, Bottas believes Mercedes will be more naturally competitive this time around.

“FP1 already looked a bit better than last year,” Bottas said. “In FP2, both Ferrari and Red Bull looked very quick, but we were not far off,” he said. “The car has been improved massively in the high-downforce trim. It is much quicker, even compared to the beginning of the season.

“It's extremely difficult to get the balance perfectly right on this circuit, there's such a wide range of corners, so we have a lot of work to do. I think we have a lot of possibilities for a good result this weekend, but we need to get the car absolutely right to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull.”