V♌altteri Bottas says he does not understand why he struggled with balance issues on his Mercedes Formula 1 car throughout Russian Grand Prix qualifying.

While Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was able to earn a front-row starting berth by spꦆlitting the Ferrari duo, Bottas, who usually excels at Sochi, could only set the fifth-fastest time and was slower than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Bottas aborte💖d his final Q3 run afte💟r suffering a snap under braking at Turn 14, and the Finn explained how the issue proved a persistent problem throughout the session.

“It was tricky today,” he said. “In the last sector, in Turn 13, pretty much in every lap, sometimes a bigger one, sometimes a small🌳er on꧟e, but I always had a snap.

“On both runs in Q3 🌼I just c♐ouldn’t drive around the issue. I always had the snap, so then the rear tyres would overheat and that was it for Sector 3.

“📖It was really, really difficult and I don’t really understand why.”

Bottas ult🅘imately ended up a full second o🌱ff the pace of polesitter Charles Leclerc and was six-tenths adrift of Hamilton.

He will move up one position to start Sunday’s race from 🃏f🐼ourth once Verstappen’s engine-related grid penalty is applied.

Bottas remains hopeful about his race-day prospects with both drivers starting on Medium tyres after Mercedes opted for a differ🎶ent strategy to its chief rival Ferrari.

Speaking about his chances, Bottas added: “I think we thou♑ght tha✱t even if we’d been in the front row Ferrari would get us at the start, so I think we still have everything to play for.”