Valtteri Bottas says Mercedes wil❀l need to pull off the “perfect tow” in Italian Grand Prix qualifying to have🙈 a chance of challenging Formula 1 rival Ferrari for pole position.

The Finn ended up 0.369s adrift of Friday practice pacesetter Charles Leclerc, though Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was able tꦜo get within 0.068s of the Ferrari driver at Monza.

But Bottas believes Mercedes’ best chance of fight💝ing for pole will be if it can take the advantage of the slipstream benefit, given its straight-line speed deficit to Ferrar🔜i. Mercedes calculated Ferrari’s power advantage to be worth as much as 15kph on the straights at the Belgian Grand Prix last time out.

It is due to be Hamilton’s turn to run second iꦆn qualifying for the German manufacturer this weekend, meaning he, in theory at least, will be best-positioned to make the most of the potential tow.

“I think we an opꩲportunity but we definitely need to get quite a perfect set-up from the package we have and a perfect tow too,” Bottas said.

“It was a little bit messy in terms ཧof the run plan we had, to actually make it happen, but it was the same for everyone. There 🍃were a couple of corners where it was raining at times, and that made it a little bit more difficult to get more detailed data of the tyres and the car behavior.

“But we managed ♑to get a bit of a feel, the car didn’t feel too bad, I didn’t🗹 have a very good tow on my quickest lap, but otherwise it felt good and it was pretty positive on the long runs, at the end with the higher fuel load. I had a good feeling and good pace, so that’s positive for Sunday.

“We knew coming here they [Ferrari] were going to be strong, but for sure it didn’t look any worse t🥂han Spa for us. For sure we have a good chance this weekend and if ꦯqualifying is for sure going to be important, But the main thing is Sunday and how the race pace is going to be.”

Asked if he feels Mercedes’ race-pace can be ✱as good as in Spa at the least, Boꦬttas replied: “At least, with the limited running we had, it felt quite good.

“That’s promising but, for sure, there are still lots of things to be found from today before we’ve hea😼ded to qualifying and the race.”