Business as usual for Bottas after Australia crash

Valtteri Bottas says the Bahrain Grand Prix will be "normal race weekend", despite the added pressure on his shoulders after crashing at the season-opening race in Australia. Bottas finished eighth in Melbourne, from 15th on the grid, after wrecking the back-end of his Mercedes in qualifying.

The Finn's seat at the Silver Arrows is reportedly uncertain beyond the end of this year, with Daniel Ricciardo a reported target at Brackley as his Red Bull deal winds down.

Although Bottas struggled to impose his credentials in Melbourne, a trip to Bahrain gives him the chance to shine - he secured his first Formula 1 pole position in Sakhir last year.

And Bottas is not putting any extra pressure on this weekend's race, as he seeks a big result to get back into line with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

"I think it's a normal race weekend, that's my feeling at the moment, honestly," Bottas told a press conference.

"Sometimes you have bad races and then there's always the next one and of course you always want to perform but there is no point in gathering pressure from one mistake in qualifying.

"Of course, I always hope for a good weekend but yeah, I feel a normal race weekend ahead.

On his Q3 shunt in Melbourne, Bottas added: "[It's] not so much been in my mind, because everything was kind of processed during the weekend.

"It was a bad weekend, that's it.

"Now we still have 20 races to go and we're here in Bahrain, so nothing really to worry about at this point.

"We have a competitive car. We know we still have a lot of work to do to make it better. Just a bad weekend, so looking forward to this one."