Bottas: Pole possible without British GP qualifying error 

Valtteri Bottas is convinced he could have challenged Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel for pole position had he not made a costly error during British Grand Prix qualifying. 

The Mercedes driver was unable to match Hamilton’s pole lap as he finished 0.325s adrift of his teammate and behind both Ferraris at Silverstone. 

Bottas was left to rue a mistake on his final Q3 lap, running wide at both Vale and Club. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff reckons the error equated to around 0.350s in lap time loss - which would have been enough to see the Finn secure back-to-back poles. 

“I'm disappointed - our pace was good today and it was all going well for me, but I lost it in the last two corners. 

“It was not a bad lap until then. Probably I was suffering with some front overheating at the end of the laps and that made it really tricky to get the last chicane right. 

“It was the same thing and a bigger mistake in Q3, I ended up going in too deep and struggling coming out of Turn 17. Without that mistake I think I would have been fighting for pole today.”

Bottas, who will start from fourth on the grid, is anticipating a tough race on Sunday and believes tyre management could prove key to securing a strong result. 

“The Ferraris looked strong yesterday already and it was very close today between us and them, so I expect a similarly close fight tomorrow,” he said. 

“It's not going to be easy to pass them tomorrow, but we've seen overtaking on this track before, so there's still opportunity for more. 

“We saw blistering last week in Austria, so keeping the tyres in good condition is going to be the key tomorrow given the high temperatures. 

“It is going to be a long and hot race, a tough battle, but I'm looking forward to it.”