Needing a championship boost, Valtteri Bottas will look to capitalise on starting ahead of Lewis Hamilton in Austria.
The Finn had qualified fourth on Saturday but will line-up just ahead of his Mercedes teammate in third following the Briton’s grid penalty for impeding Kimi Raikkonen in Q1.
Having failed to beat Lewis since Baku and falling 36-points behind as a result, Bottas knows the importance of closing that gap in Spielberg.
“For me, it’s a big opportunity to get closer to him in the points and it’s also one position better in the grid, which we always take,” he said via Crash.net.
“That’s how it is and it will be up to me and for us to have a good race from third place.
“For sure he’s not starting far away and will be trying everything to come up. If winning is possible – which I still believe it is – that’s the target. If it’s not, then we need to score the maximum amount of points that will be possible.”
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Before his penalty was announced, Hamilton had already talked up the prospect of fighting Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, who line-up on the front row.
But he also realised he had more to lose than those two drivers as they look to end Mercedes’ 10-race winning streak.
“I try to have a balanced approach between aggression and conservative,” he explained.
“Of course I will be pushing for the win tomorrow, that’s ultimately always the goal and it should be nothing more and nothing less.
“As I said, it’s not going be easy to get close to be passing the Ferraris.
“I think they’ve been very very quick all weekend but of course I will be giving it absolutely everything. I don’t like ever settling for anything but first.”
Something both drivers noted was the different tyre strategy taken by Ferrari, with Leclerc almost guaranteed to two-stop starting on softs while those behind start on mediums.
“Everything is possible and for my feeling, we’re definitely starting on the right tyre,” Bottas said.
“It could be a small disadvantage for the start and for the first one or two laps, but I think going on the medium opens more opportunities for us than for Charles, for example, in terms of strategy.
“We can go a bit longer if needed, but we can also stop a bit earlier if we want and put the harder tyre.”
