In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas says he his car “worked perfectly” after his Alfa Romeo mechanics swapped his chassis before the sprint race
In brief
Bottas thankful to team after ‘perfect’ chassis changeBottas has given credit to the Alfa Romeo mechanics after their rebuilt his C42 from scratch following the technical problems that put a stop to his qualifying on Friday.
Bottas missed the entirety of the crucial second practice session while his team changed his chassis, but eventually took to the start of the sprint race from eighth on the grid, eventually finishing seventh.
“I want to thank the team who did a great job putting the car back together,” said Bottas. “There were so many things they had to change but they were brilliant and thankfully everything worked perfectly. I always trust the crew to get the car right, but they had a big task ahead of them and they delivered.
“We had a strong car as well, apart from the wheelspin I had at the start, then it was actually a really, really nice sprint race and we had good pace.”
Ocon “on the back foot” without Alpine floor update
Esteban Ocon believes that his pace this weekend is compromised compared to his team mate due to running and older specification of floor on his car.
Alpine have given Fernando Alonso an updated floor, while Ocon continues to use the launch-specification design. Alonso finished ninth in yesterday’s sprint, while Ocon was seven places behind his team mate in 16th.
“I think Fernando’s car, with the updates, was performing very good this weekend so far,” said Ocon.
“I think tyre deg has played a big part on his side today. On my side, I’m a bit on the back foot, but we have a different car, so that’s what’s to be expected.”
Armstrong had to rely on trackside TVs at restart
Formula 2 Imola sprint race winner Marcus Armstrong had no radio throughout the event, meaning he had to work out when a Virtual Safety Car was ending from trackside screens.
“I quite…