Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas is expecting an “interesting” and “good fight” with Sebastian Vettel in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, after taking pole position.
The Finnish driver ended the first runs of Q3 at the top of the timesheets, before several yellow flags prevented his rivals from improving.
Bottas looked quick all through qualifying, though, and secured his second career pole position. He predicts a close battle with Vettel, who completes the front row, in the race.
He also believes his team-mate Lewis Hamilton will recover from eighth on the grid after his gearbox change penalty.
“It should be an interesting [and] good fight tomorrow," he said. “The target is not less than winning of course.
“I'm sure Lewis still has a good race ahead, there's a lot of time to come back and get good points for us as a team, so I can't wait for tomorrow.”
Bottas said Mercedes barely touched or changed the balance of his car in qualifying, and the laps kept on improving: “We definitely got the car really nice and stable for qualifying.
“I was just able to build up the confidence, and this is a track where you need it in high speed corners.
“On the balance, we didn't really touch the car at all during qualifying, and the laps were getting better and better as a result.
“So as team we have done a great job over the weekend to get the car better and it felt good today.”
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