Valtteri Bottas insists he will not be holding back in his quest to put early-season disappointments behind him and claim a second straight win at the Austrian GP.
The Finn produced two excellent laps in Q3 to take his first pole of the season at the Red Bull Ring in qualifying, just beating teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.019s as Mercedes once again flexed their renewed strength.
Upgrades both to the engine and the car in consecutive weeks have resulted in consecutive lock-outs of the front row and it was making the most of them that Bottas considered key to his success.
“The whole weekend we’ve been making good progress with the set-up,” he claimed. “We’ve got new bits in the car this weekend, we’ve been working to get the car well balanced with those and finally we did and the car felt so good.
“In the last run, I knew there was still one-tenth or so I could improve from the first run, managed to find it and apparently I needed it.”
In his own remarks, Hamilton would praise the 28-year-old, who could have scored victories in Bahrain, China and Baku with better luck.
“Valtteri did a stunning lap on the first run and I had a bit of a mistake so that ended the run. But I’m happy with the second one,” he said.
“This is a great result for the team, and Valtteri deserves that. He went a completely different way with the set-up and maybe in hindsight I should have gone that direction as well.
“Valtteri did a better job today, which I’m happy for him. I’m going to work hard to improve my qualifyings.”
It is that feeling of redemption for the missed opportunities that is firing Bottas up for Sunday, with his results often masking his strong pace.
“I just need a good, clean start, nothing amazing. No need to be a hero in Turn 1 and then go for it,” he declared.
“I can guarantee I’m more hungry for a win than anyone else on the grid now I’m really going to go for it.”
