Bottas to draw on 2017 victory as inspiration for latest Russian Grand Prix comeback

Russian Grand Prix

Bottas to draw on 2017 victory as inspiration for latest Russian Grand Prix comeback

Finn believes he is in a good place from P3 on the grid

Ewan Gale

Saturday 26 September 2020 18:26 Updated: 18:43

Valtteri Bottas is ready to draw upon his success at the 2017 Russian Grand Prix in a bid to secure another Sochi Autodrom triumph.

Bottas will start from third on the grid after finishing six-tenths of a second adrift of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen also ahead of him.

But that is of no concern to the Finn as he clinched his first F1 victory at the track three years ago after starting from third, while he remains optimistic he can take advantage of the tyre situation and the kilometre-long run to the first major corner.

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"I remember once, I started third here and I know what happened then," said Bottas who, along with Verstappen, starts on the medium compound, while Hamilton is on softs.

"For sure I will try to do the same. I really do think I have the advantage with the medium tyre in the first stint so still all to play for"

Bottas had carried his practice form into qualifying, finishing top of Q1 and only bettered by Daniel Ricciardo at the end of a hectic Q2 session complicated by Sebastian Vettel's accident with just over two minutes remaining.

In Q3, however, after a mistake on his first run, he was left baffled as to why he finished so far adrift of Hamilton following the second.

"Q3 was a tricky one," reflected Bottas. "In the first run I didn’t feel my tyres were ready, so out of the last corner, starting the lap, I had a big snap and lost a couple of tenths on the run down to turn two where I had massive oversteer and the tyres only came in towards the end of the lap.

"I was just waiting for the second run then and there were no mistakes as such, turn two, maybe there was a tiny lock-up, went a bit wide.

"To be honest, I don’t really get it why I couldn’t match Lewis’ times in Q3. I just didn’t feel I was gaining much grip from previous sessions.

"I think even Q2 felt better, so a few question marks from me about what really happened – or maybe I was just playing games and wanted to start third!"

Before you go...

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