Bottas surprised by Ferrari outperformance

Qualifying one spot ahead of his team mate wasn't much of a consolation for Valtteri Bottas who exited qualifying worried about Mercedes' pace deficit  in Hungary relative to arch rivals Ferrari.

The usually optimistic Finn casts a doubt on Mercedes' ability to challenge the red squad in Sunday's race given the Scuderia's advantage around the twisty Hungaroring layout.

"They had the upper hand today, Bottas conceded.

"They have such quicker cars. They have everything right for this track. We still have so much work to do on circuits like this. Let’s see how this goes tomorrow." 

• Hamilton to rely on strategy to fight for race win

Bottas insisted however that despite the gap with the leaders, he spared no effort in qualifying Saturday afternoon. 

"I had to give it everything today. In my first run, the lap was already quite good. Then on the second run in Q3, I was fast in sector one and two but then the tyres overheated and I lost time in sector three.

"Overall I don't think there was much more in it for us today. I was surprised by the pace of Ferrari. Yesterday we were hoping that it was going to be a really tight fight for the pole.

"It was, but they had the advantage. Now we need to focus on tomorrow. It will be really close on race pace between the top three teams.

"Starting from third is not too bad. I need a good start and hopefully we can nail the strategy tomorrow."

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