Valtteri Bottas has said he expects a good race after losing out on pole position to team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Given the practice pace from both Mercedes on Friday, the turnaround in pace had certainly reshaped their weekend.
After being out-qualified by Hamilton in all but two race weekends thus far, this situation could feel like a bitter pill to swallow for the Finn after coming close once again.
Fighting back against the growing wave of form rising from Hamilton’s side of the garage will be important to take the battle to him in the race.
“We were quite lost on Friday but we made some changes and turned the weekend around,” Bottas said. “Going into the race we have a fantastic starting position and I’m expecting a good fight with Lewis.”
Having been in contention to head the grid for Sunday’s race, Bottas felt disappointed to have fallen behind after the red flag period caused by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo disrupted his rhythm.
“It’s disappointing to lose pole as that was the target today,” he said. “It was looking good before the late red flag, but Lewis produced a great lap and mine just wasn’t good enough.
“That final run in Q3 was the first time we had tried to do a flying lap on the first lap, because of the temperatures, and I couldn’t get them to work as well as Lewis did – I just couldn’t find that grip out there.”
