Valtteri Bottas was left “puzzled” by the poor handling oꦗf his Mercedes Formula 1 car during the race simulations in Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Bottas ended second practice in Bahrain fifth fastest overall, 0.371s o𝓰ff the pace set by Red Bull’s Max Verstappe✱n.

The Finn struggled during the race simulations and his frustrations were heard over team radio: "It's undriveable," Bottas told his engineer in the latter 🐽stages of FP2.

While Bottas wasn’t completely happy with the handling of his Mercedes W12𓂃, he feels the team has made a step forward compared to pre-season testing.

“First of all, it felt better than in testing, in terms of how the car was feeling, etc. so that’s good, but it also felt like we’re not quite there y🍰et with the car balance,” Bottaꦜs said.

“At least it was a tro🔜uble-free day, with no big issues, but now the main thing is my mind is that we still have plenty of work to do if we want to fight for the pole and for the win.”

When asked about 🅷his radio message, he explained: “Yes, the last long run we did was pretty inconsistent, and I couldn’t really put any laps together as the car was, as I said, undriveable at times. A bit puzzled but it’s Friday and that’s why we pract🧸ice.”

Mercedes teammate Lewis ☂Hamilton ended the second se꧃ssion in third, just over 0.2s off top spot.

Like Bottas, he agrees Mercedes has made gains since testing but concedes it still ‘has a hill to climb’ if it is to beat Red Bullꦇ.

“This weekend it’s looking better but still not perfect,” Hamilton said. “So we are just working as hard as we c𒅌an. We’ve got great people in the background li🤪ke Rich, who is always so efficient with setting up the wings and I’m always just amazed by the work he is doing back there.

“I know we still have a hill to climb but we’re staying positive.🐼”

The seven-time F1 champion wasn’t surprised to𒁃 see Re💫d Bull and his former team McLaren on the pace in Bahrain.

“We thought Red Bull would be as fast as they are, if not faster,” Hamilton added. “So we know they are leading at the🐼 moment. McLaren are looking great and it’s great to see them taking a step. It’ll be interesting to see how the long runs are.”