In the run-up to the start of pre-season testing Motorsport Week brings you left-field reflections and stories of teams, drivers and reserves that will be part of the Formula 1 paddock in 2019.
Valtteri Bottas has been an established front-runner for most of his Formula 1 career.
Bottas was only in his second season when Williams emerged as a contender as the hybrid era began in 2014 and his status as a challenger was confirmed upon his switch to Mercedes for 2017.
His first year, though, was spent mired towards the back of the grid as Williams struggled with its recalcitrant and unloved FW35 in 2013. Having had a fast-but-inconsistent car in 2012, in which Pastor Maldonado staggeringly won the Spanish Grand Prix, 2013 was a thump back to reality for the Grove-based team. It never fully grasped the complicated exhaust system and much of the campaign was spent scrapping for Q2 and holding out hope of a point.
But their highly-rated rookie dazzled in Canada.
The three-part qualifying session was affected by varying amounts of rainfall at the notoriously tricky Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, at which Bottas had no experience prior to the race weekend.
Bottas, though, comprehensively out-performed team-mate Maldonado and comfortably made it through to Q3, where he executed another stunning lap to place third, behind only Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, qualifying within half a second of the reigning champion.
Bottas held out hope of taking points but unfortunately dry conditions in race trim emphasised the deficit Williams faced to the rest, as he plummeted rearwards and came home a low-key 14th.
But the wet weather had at least given Bottas his chance to shine.
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