“I should be able to keep him behind, hopefully” – Pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas is looking to win the Turkish GP and must prevent Max Verstappen from overtaking him during the start to have any chance of achieving that.
Valtteri Bottas will start the Turkish Grand Prix in pole position tomorrow, after the fastest man in qualifying and teammate Lewis Hamilton took a ten-place grid penalty for his fourth ICE of the season.
YES BOYS!!!! 👊 It’s @LewisHamilton FASTEST in Turkey! And it’s @ValtteriBottas who’ll start from pole! pic.twitter.com/JiuaT5WfxV
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) October 9, 2021
This presents the Alfa Romeo-bound driver to win the race tomorrow, but to make things difficult, has Max Verstappen for company in the front row on the grid.
The Finn is aware Verstappen will go all out in the first few corners to take the race lead but is looking to focus on himself and not commit any mistakes.
I’m sure Max will try everything he can.
“For sure, for me, there’s not that much to lose. Of course I can try to defend hard if there’s a situation, but I’ll look forward to it. As long as I don’t do mistakes I should be able to keep him behind, hopefully.
“It’s a good result. With the situation, with Lewis’ penalty, it’s the best we could do as a team. Very happy to be starting in first place tomorrow and it gives me a great opportunity to fight for the race win.
“The start is always a risk but I think we have a pretty good race car, then obviously strategy will always play a part. At the moment, I’m feeling confident in the car and I think the pace is good, so I think I just really need to focus on my own race step by step.”
