Valtteri Bottas admits the gap to Force India "is a bit more than what we were hoping for" after Williams struggled in FP2 at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Nico Hulkenberg was sixth quickest in the second practice session on Friday night, with Bottas down in 15th place, one position behind team-mate Felipe Massa. With the two teams involved in a tight battle for fourth in the constructors' championship, Bottas concedes he is wary of the size of the gap at this stage of the weekend.
"It is a bit more than what we were hoping for but I wasn’t quite happy with the car today," Bottas said. "If we can improve it, then I can also get more lap time out of myself and close the gap.
"The track felt good today but the car didn’t. We have a lot of set-up work to do before tomorrow, but we’ve been in this position before and recovered well. Force India was quicker than we expected so it will be challenging weekend for us, that’s for sure."
While Bottas was more encouraged by the Williams race pace, he says the long run potential depends on qualifying high enough on the grid to exploit it at the Marina Bay Circuit.
"The long runs didn’t feel too bad and I have to say I was expecting worse tyre degradation. I didn’t do that many laps with the Ultra Soft tyres, but with the Soft tyres I got a decent run in and it wasn’t too bad. Now we just we just need to work to find the speed for qualifying, as grid position is very important here."
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