Valtteri Bottas says his failure to land pole position for Formula 1’s French Grand Prix was influenced by a combination of “fine details”, including a change of win♛d direction.

The F🍎inn had set the pace for much of the weekend heading into qualifying but ended up being beaten to pole by Mercedes teammate Lewꦛis Hamilton.

Bottas was just over a tenth adrift following the opღening runsও of Q3 but was unable to improve on his final effort, with Hamilton extending his advantage out to 0.286s as he sealed pole.

“I think, in the end, ultimately Lewis managed to get some better laps and deserves to be on p🌟ole,” Bottas explained.

"From my side in Q3 I felt my first lap was OK, but the winওd direction changed throughout qualifying.

“In Turns 8 and 9 I’ve bee⛦n struggling a bit all weekend; at some poi🤪nt, I found some good lines there but then they didn’t work when the wind direction changed.

“It’s just fine details here and there, there are no massive things. In the second run, I was just a bit unlucky with no cars ahead, so I had no tow🤡 at all, so I was losing time in all the straights.

“So, I had to make the most out of the las🌠t corners to catch up andဣ kind of lost it there.

“It’s unfortunate, because I was hoping to be on pole, but second💛 is 🃏a good place, as there’s a long run into Turn 1.”

Bottas says he will focus on the race start overnight, which he has pinpointed as a onꦅe of the “key” opportunities to get ahead of Hamilton.

“I think the race start is going t﷽o be one of the keys for me tomorrow, so I’ll focus on that tonight,” Bottas said.

“It has been a really ꦉstronಞg package we’ve had here this weekend, that’s obviously enjoyable and, hopefully, it will be the same tomorrow.

“If we would have been𝄹 on the Soft tyre it 💧would be a big challenge,” he added. “I actually think that with the Medium, even though it’s a bit warmer, based on what we experienced yesterday, it felt pretty robust.

“A🍷ll cars at the front are on the same 🌜tyre, so no drama there.”