Valtteri Bottas says he “couldn’t trust the rear end” of his Mercedes Formula 1 car as he only managed eighth in 🐼qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix♍.

Bottas had started the weekend at Imola 🥂strongly, topping both Fri𝐆day practice sessions and leading the way in the first part of qualifying.

The Finn ended quali🦹fying eighth overall, nearly half a second shy of teammate and polesitter Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas’ time in Q3 was slower than the best time he set 🍸in Q1 - a time that would have bee🐎n good enough to put him fourth on the grid.

His struggles came in the first sector of the lap and Bottas revealed he had suffered a snap of oversteer on his first Q3 effort at Turn 2𒁃.

“P8 definite🌊ly not what I was aiming for today, especially with the feeling starting the qualifying and how everything was feeling… In Q3’s first run I went into Turn 2 and had really sudden snap from the rear-end, and that really continued through sector one,” Bottas said.

“I lost a lot of time, and actually, the same happened in ro🗹und two, It was never there. I couldn’t🍎 trust the rear end of the car and it was something that I didn’t feel in the whole qualifying before that so, what happened we still need to investigate. So, for sure, disappointing.”

Mercedes struggled for rear-end stability on the exit of corners at the season-opening Bahrain Gra🅘nd Prix, but Bottas felt it was corner entry, rather than corner exits that were the problem at Imola. 

“It was a bit different,” Bottas added. “Now it was more in corner entries, which I’ve never really had it beᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚfore. We need to look first of all that everything is right with the car. S꧒o, it was not ideal.”