Valtteri Bottas says he “couldn’t trust the rear end” of his Mercedes Fo💯rmula 1 car as he only managed ei𓂃ghth in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Bottas had sta✨rted the weekend at Imola strongly, topping both Friday practice sessions and leading the way in the first 🃏part of qualifying.

The Finn ended qualifying eighth overall, nearly hal🉐f 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 been good enough to put him fourth on the grid.

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

“P8 definitely 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 sectඣor one,” Bottas said.

“I lost a lot of time, and actually, the same happened in round 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 sꦕo, what happened we still need to inves🥂tigate. So, for sure, disappointing.”

Merceꦉdes struggled for rear-end stability on the exit of corners at the se𒆙ason-opening Bahrain Grand 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 ne𒁃ver really had it before. We need to look first of all that everything is right with the car. So, i🥃t was not ideal.”