Bottas keen to get his future ‘sorted’ after ‘slightly better’ weekend for Sauber in Singapore

Valtteri Bottas has reiterated he is keen to get his F1 future sorted after Kick Sauber enjoyed a more positive race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore.

Both the Finn and his team mate Zhou Guanyu were knocked out in Q1 for the fourth consecutive race weekend, but were able to leave the track with some positives, especially after they kept Pierre Gasly behind as they crossed the line.

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The second seat at Sauber, alongside Nico Hulkenberg for next season, is still unoccupied, but an announcement is thought to be made sooner rather than later with multiple candidates on the table.

Whether Bottas or Zhou sign a contract extension, or new boss Mattia Binotto takes a chance on a younger driver like Franco Colapinto, still remains to be seen.

Reflecting on their P15 and P16 finish in Singapore, Bottas said it was “still not an easy day like expected, and also no help from safety cars”.

“I just had an issue with my brakes at the beginning of the race,” he added. “They overheated and I started locking up, so lost some time there. If I look at the race, I don’t think we would actually do much different.

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“We could also work together as a team at the end of the race to keep Gasly behind and that was good, so I think we maximised today.”

With an “important” three-week break ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Bottas outlined his aims as the sport heads into the final part of the season.

“First of all, try to find performance, evaluating what exactly is going to be the upgrade for Austin, which is very much needed,” he explained. “And sorting things out for the future, that’s obviously high on my priority list because it’s starting to feel almost like Christmas time, you know it’s getting close so better get it sorted.”

Zhou was similarly upbeat after finishing just ahead of his team mate, stating that the team “did the best we could” after they ended the race a lap behind winner Lando Norris.

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“From my side I think it was very strong pace compared to how we are with one-lap pace,” he said. “I’ve always been stronger in the race this year than the quali just because I’m struggling finding the comfort zone in that car at the moment.

“The race was a decent pace, I think we were similar to Stroll ahead and then played the teamwork at the end – tried to give Valtteri the DRS so Pierre couldn’t get past him, so that was a lot of management for the timing behind and then to the end.”