Red Bull Content Pool
General
Bottas reveals: "I didn't experience any blistering"
- GPblog.com
Valtteri Bottas looked back with satisfaction on the first and second free practice. The Mercedes-driver admitted that his team is in good shape and that he didn't suffer from blistering during the lung runs in the afternoon.
"It's been a good day for us, and we've gained plenty of learnings. It's a nice feeling to be back on track here and feeling the improvements of the car since we were last here, back in pre-season testing," Bottas said referring to his employer's review of the winter tests at the end of February.
Small details can still be improved
The Finnish driver is satisfied with the first day of Mercedes at the Barcelona circuit. "The car felt good out there, but obviously there's some fine-tuning to do", he says.
Where the W11 suffered from a high tyre degradation at Silverstone that wasn't the case in Spain on Friday despite the high temperatures. "We did long runs on all of the tyre compounds today and I didn't experience any blistering, so there will be lots of learnings for us to look into in order to really maximise tyre performance here." Bottas seems to suggest that Mercedes has taken a more conservative approach this weekend.
Focus on tyre management
Especially the race seems to become a challenge again for Mercedes. "We're looking strong but the main thing will be Sunday with these temperatures and whether we can keep these tyres in a good condition," concluded Lewis Hamilton's team mate.