Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas put in a perfect afternoon at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Saturday afternoon, building up his performance through the session before claiming the second pole position of his career, his second this season.
This was a good reward for all the Finn's hard work, especially if you look back on the season and see that he has lost out on positions by tiny margins in previous races. So it was great to see him claim pole by a few hundredths over the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel this time around.
“What a special feeling. It's only the second pole for me and hopefully there's more to come. It was a good lap in Q3, if not quite perfect. Today was all about building up the confidence in the car,”he said. “I got it set up nicely and it's great to get the second pole position of my career.”
“I'm going to focus on my own race, rather than looking behind me tomorrow, but we will not underestimate the Ferraris. It's going to be close and should be an interesting fight.”
With teammate Lewis Hamilton starting down in 8th place due to a gearbox penalty, all the pieces are in place for a really exciting Grand Prix, with a chance that the weather could also mix things up.
“Hopefully Lewis can fight back and we can score strong points for the team,” Valtteri added. “The weather could be important tomorrow but starting first, I won't complain if the rain stays away. The car feels great, especially on high fuel, and I'm ready to win. That's the only target. It's been too long since Russia.”
