Bottas happy with Suzuka update so far

Finley Crebolder
Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottasfeels that he can push his car further than before following updates brought to the W10 for this weekend.

Mercedeshave thus far dominated at Suzuka this year, with the Finn topping both practice sessions ahead of team-mateLewis Hamilton.

“It was a very positive day,” said Bottas after FP2.

“We tried the new bits with the car we had for this weekend. I’m glad the weather stayed good, we got plenty of running and used obviously some tyres from Saturday as well.

“So good running, it felt good since the beginning. Pretty happy with the car in general. Just some minor things with the balance to treat, but the short and long runs, at least today, felt good.”

The German team looked to have fallen behind Ferrari for the first time this season, with the Scuderia winning three of the last four races and taking pole position in each.

In response, they brought minor upgrades to Japan in a bid to get back on top, and Bottas is pleased with the results.

“[We] still need to remember it’s only practice. I do still feel the gains we made with the car, so that’s always a very nice feeling.

“We can push the car even further than before. I think we need to focus on ourselves, but yeah, Sunday is still going to be close with qualy and the race.”

然而,博塔携手团队将充分说advantage of the day off before qualifying to make further improvements to the car.

“I think we did a good job today. That means there’s lots of work to be done to analyse everything before qualifying on Sunday morning if it happens.

“Tomorrow, I’m sure the team will keep me busy somehow. I’m sure we’ll take advantage of the extra time to look at things we can do better.”

Follow all the action from the Japanese Grand Prixwith the PlanetF1 live centre