Valtteri Bottas says a 🍸glazed front-right brake disc prevente꧂d him from “maximising the potential” of his Mercedes Formula 1 car during Styrian Grand Prix qualifying.

Bottas was off the pace in a wet qualifying session at the Red Bull 🌄Ring as 🧸he ended up nearly 1.5 seconds behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, who stormed to a dominant pole position.

The Finn, who leads the 2020 championship by 13 points over Hamilton following his win in Austria last wee൩kend, could only set the fourth-fastest time and was outpaced by both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McL♋aren driver Carlos Sainz.

“It was no🍸t easy and I didn’t look to be fourth on the grid but obviously tricky conditi😼ons can bring different challenges,” Bottas said.

“For me personally I just wasn’t able to build enough temperature int๊o the tyres.

“The reason was my front right brake was glazing throughout the qualifying, so I couldn’t really maximise the potential of the car in qualifying - w🥂hich is really important fꦉor the confidence in the wet conditions.

“It made it quite tricky and for sure it’s disapp🧸oi♒nting.”

The Mercedes duo were hampered by gearbox-related reliability issuꦆes at the 🤡season-opening Austrian Grand Prix but the German manufacturer has been working to fix the problem between the two races at the Red Bull Ring.

Asked if he🌜 is confident the issue will not resurface during Sunday’s Styrian Grand Pri꧅x, Bottas replied:  “I really hope so, it would be nice to go flat out.

“But it’s something we will find out tomorrow because we haven’t done a race d♔iꦦstance in practice. We know the car is quick, which is important.”