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Bottas: I need more straightline speed

Valtteri Bottas will need to find more straightline speed from his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes if he is to beat the dominant Volkswagen-powered Signature cars in tomorrow's Macau Grand Prix

The Finnish Mika Hakkinen protege had been battling with Macau favourite Edoardo Mortara for top spot throughout practice. He qualified second and looked set to take the fight to the Italian in today's qualification race.

He made a good start but lost out to Mortara's Signature team-mate Daniel Abt on the long run to Turn 1, before also dropping behind Signature's Laurens Vanthoor at the same corner on the next lap.

Bottas then lost out to Prema team-mate Roberto Merhi, before recovering to fourth on the final lap when his fight with Abt took both past Merhi on the brakes into Lisboa.

"We got a bit unlucky with the slipstream," said Bottas. "At the start I had nowhere to go and the Signature cars overtook me.

"We need to find a solution with the straightline. In the mountain section I was really quick, but there is nowhere to overtake.

"The car felt really good; there are no problems. Everything is still possible."

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