Valtteri Bottas has voiced his concern about Alfa Romeo's pace after losing ground to Alpine and McLaren at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Finn came close to completing a strong recovery drive after starting the race from the pit lane. Having taken power unit penalties earlier in the weekend, Alfa Romeo elected to start Bottas from the pit lane in order to make set-up changes for the race. These efforts almost came to fruition, with Bottas running in 10th on the final lap of the Grand Prix. However, the final points-paying position was lost on the final lap to Fernando Alonso, much to Bottas' frustration. "It's a shame because there are no points for P11. We tried, but ultimately we didn't quite have enough pace," Bottas told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Fernando was closing pretty fast with a fresh set of tyres and ultimately got me on the last lap, which is a shame."
Bottas concerned by midfield rivals' pace
With Bottas and teammate Zhou Guanyu finishing 11th and 14th, the door was open for midfield rivals to capitalise. McLaren and Alpine had two cars each in the points, giving both teams 81 points in the Constructors' Championship, and leaving Alfa Romeo behind in sixth on 51 points. A double-points finish for seventh-placed Haas also brought them to within 17 points of the Hinwil-based team. Bottas added that he expected more performance from the car at the Red Bull Ring, and warned that the team risk being left behind by their midfield rivals. "[The performance] hasn't really improved, we felt like we should have had better pace this weekend," added Bottas. "I thought we should be... not easily top 10, but we should have been in there and we'll look into why we weren't. "I had a smaller rear wing for the race today, which was obviously quick in the straights, but we were losing a bit in the corners. "We definitely need to keep progressing because every other team is."
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