Bottas unfazed about limited running or rain

Williams endured an eventful Friday practice, with Felipe Massa twice falling victim to a punctured left-rear tyre incident which limited his morning running.

The mishap was eventually traced to a set-up error by Williams according to technical chief Pat Symonds, and while Valtteri Bottas did not experience a deflation out on the track the same problem did appear on his car.

The Finn had a trouble-free session in the afternoon, ending up in P10, relieved the team had found the origin of the morning's left-rear tyre issue.

"We managed to find the issue between the sessions, as there was a bit of a problem with the rim clearance," Bottas explained.

" I think we managed to fix that, at least there were no problems in FP2, so I’m pretty confident we’ve dealt with that problem the right way."

Bottas admitted that he felt no apprehension in the afternoon session despite the speeds reached at the end of the track's long straight.

"I had a good chat before FP2 with the engineers and they explained to me in detail what they had found, so I felt confident going into the car.

"They found the problem and if something would happen then it would happen; there was no point in fearing ahead."

Williams' limited running today coupled with a rain forecast for tomorrow has thrown a bit of a spanner into its work program. But Bottas believes that every team down the pitlane will be facing the same problem.

"It will be the same for everyone. In the end everyone has done more or less the same amount of laps today, so we need to analyse well what we did today.

"We haven’t really tested our performance with this car in the wet, so it will be interesting, but I have no idea where we’ll stand, to be honest.

"The long run with the medium tyres was good, I think we have made the good tyre choices, so I’m confident for the race."

Bottas also predicted who shall be his closest rivals on Sunday.

"I think we’ll be racing with Toro Rosso and Red Bull and also maybe Force India. I hope not, I hope we move forward but I think this is how it’s going to be.

"I think we can have a good race, because the tyres we have in more quantity than the others seem to be the best ones for our car, so let’s see if it works on Sunday."

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AS IT HAPPENED: Chinese Grand Prix - FP2

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