Hamilton, whose dominant time of one minute 21.135 seconds was 0.478 of a second faster than Rosberg with the rest looking slow in comparison, leads the German by nine points in the championship with eight rounds remaining. “The long run was pretty good, so work on the qualifying”.
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“I came with my A-game today, and that last lap felt incredible”.
Asked what he could achieve from fifth, Bottas said: “I think we might have an opportunity here to challenge some cars in front”. Like I said yesterday, the vehicle has been, balance-wise, very good from the start of FP1.
“So we expected to be a little bit down here, and once we got a bit more drag on the vehicle as well, that’s another element that hurts us here”.
Finland’s Valtteri Bottas, for Williams, and Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo filled the third row.
As for why Williams are so competitive, he added: “There’s nothing new in the auto for Spa and Monza”.
“At the moment a little bit too far behind, so maybe if get things sorted for tomorrow we can be closer but they look very strong”. “From our numbers there could be the possibility for fighting with them, and if it is possible then we will try”.
Ricciardo’s result ensured he maintained third place in the drivers’ standings, but he admits the battle for second place in the constructors’ race could be set to go down to the wire. Now I have two cars between me and them, which is a great opportunity. I think this track suits our auto better, that’s most of it, and also the weekend started really well. He’s normally pretty clean, Valtteri, he’s not known to be a dirty racer or anything so I knew if he was aware that I was there he wasn’t going to turn in on me. The gaps here are very, very small and if you get everything ideal you can gain a couple of places.
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“This was very much a damage limitation race for us”.
