Valtteri Bottas sets Lewis Hamilton challenge in Max Verstappen battle for Bahrain GP

F1: Bottas unveils new helmet for new season

When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters.Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer.Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights.You can unsubscribe at any time.

Valtteri Bottas insists he and Lewis Hamilton will need to work together in order to stop Max Verstappen winning the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. Red Bull have been the benchmark this season so far having impressed in pre-season testing and the free practice sessions.

Disaster struck early in qualifying though when Sergio Perez failed to get out of Q2 on the medium compound.

But Verstappen was always going to be the man to challenge Mercedes’ dominance in Bahrain.

After the first run in Q3, Hamilton and Verstappen were separated by just two-hundredths of a second.

Bottas was in close proximity as well, but the Dutchman then blew his rivals away with a scintilating lap in the final run to take pole.

Hamilton will line up alongside him on the front row with Bottas just behind in third.

Bottas thought has hinted that Mercedes will have a few tricks up their sleeve for the first race of the season to try and stop Red Bull.

“It seems like us and Max will be starting on the medium tyre so strategy-wise there isn’t anything huge,” Bottas said.

“I think we may be have more hard tyres for the race. I can’t reveal much more.

“Now we have two cars in the mix at the front against Max so I’m sure we can co-operate and do something good.”

Bottas only just managed to hold off Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, who surprisingly qualified fourth.

The Finnish driver ended up two-tenths behind Hamilton and almost six-tenths slower than Verstappen.

But Bottas admits that he was already at a disadvantage in Q3 due to a choice of tyres earlier in the session.

“It was a bit better but Q1 we went out for the second run with the soft tyres so we wasted a tyre set so in Q3 I only had one set of new tyres and it was tricky to compete against Max and Lewis with just one set,” he added.

“It’s obviously not too bad. Not where we wanted to be but at least starting third and starting from there, anything is possible and obviously the aim is for tomorrow.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes it’s going to be a tight battle at the front of the grid on Sunday.

“That’s the real first test of the year. You can see it’s nip and tuck. Max came back at the end on the softs.

“It’s fantastic for us – that’s our first pole since 2013 and Honda’s for about 30 years.

“I think it’s going to be very, very tight tomorrow. The whole team has worked hard over the winter and Honda have been fantastic.”

Source: Read Full Article