• Hungarian GP - FP2

Bottas encouraged by Williams upgrades

ESPN Staff
July 25, 2014 « Hamilton not comfortable despite quick time | Ferrari on the 'right road' after Friday practice - Alonso »
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Valtteri Bottas believes Williams took a step forward with the upgrades it brought to Hungary but still expects a "really tight" battle with Red Bull and Ferrari on Saturday.

Williams has excelled at the last three races, all of which have been at power circuits, but the Hungaroring's high-downforce requirements means the FW34 is expected to be less competitive. The team has brought upgrades to Hungary in an attempt to counter this and Bottas thinks the initial signs on Friday were good.

"We made steps forward so that's really nice to see," Bottas said. "We went through all the updates and were trying all the bits. I'm really that happy that everything we put on the car - that was planned - made the car better. So that was good to see, but obviously I think it's going to be really tight this weekend."

Red Bull and Ferrari are expected to be more competitive this weekend as the circuit is less dependant on power but Bottas is not writing off a challenge for the positions behind Mercedes from Williams.

"We know here it's going to be more difficult. It's going to be really close I think this weekend but that should be the target. We know it's not going to be as easy as some other circuits but we need to be aiming for it.

"I haven't seen any pace of the others yet so difficult to say really, but all I can say is I was quite consistent, a bit of traffic in the run but we need to analyse it better."

Williams has failed to show its true pace during Friday practice on a number of occasions this season and Bottas is expecting more tomorrow.

"Yeah definitely, I think always from us Friday to Saturday we have some steps we can always make. We can improve the car set-up still, there's always some things left for qualifying."

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