Valtteri Bottas says a glazed front-right brake disc prevented him from🎃 “maximising the potential” of his Mercedes Formula 1 car d✃uring 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 po♛ints over Hamilton following his win in Austria last weekend, could only set the fourt♉h-fastest time and was outpaced by both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren driver Carlos Sainz.

“It was not easy and I didn’t look to be fou🎉rth on the grid but ob🎉viously tricky conditions can bring different challenges,” Bottas said.

“For me personally I just wasn’t able to bui🅘ld enough temperature into the tyr♌es.

“The rea൩son was my front right brake was glazing throughout the qualifying, so I couldn’t really maximise the potential of the car in qualifying - which is really important for the confidence in the wet conditions.

“It made it quite 🥀tricky and for sure it’s disappointing.”

The Mercedes duo were hampered by gearbox-related reliability issues at the season-opening A🦩ustrian Grand Prix but the German manufacturer has been working to fix the problem between the 𝓡two races at the Red Bull Ring.

Asked if he is conf🐭ident🎃 the issue will not resurface during Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix, 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 distance in pra♌ctice. We know the car is quick, which is important.”