Bottas: I guarantee I’m more hungry for win than anyone

Valtteri Bottas says his sole focus is on victory at the Austrian Grand Prix after taking pole positon by just 0.019s ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

The Finnish driver has endured a run of poor luck in recent races, most notably being hit by Sebastian Vettel at the start of the French Grand Prix plus a tyre puncture in the closing laps of the Azerbaijan Gran Prix while leading, but maximised his advantage after both Hamilton and Vettel made mistakes during Q3 to take his first pole position of the season.

Bottas, who has not won an F1 race since the 2017 season finale in Abu Dhabi, says he’s feeling comfortable with the set-up of his Mercedes W09 after its upgrade package debuted in Austria and is aiming to convert his pole into a first win of the season.

“I can guarantee I’m more hungry for a win than anyone else on the grid now I’m really going to go for it,” Bottas said. “The whole weekend we’ve been making good progress with the set-up. We’ve got new bits in the car this weekend, we’ve been working to get the car well balanced with those and finally we did and the car felt so good.

“In the last run I knew there was still one tenth or so I could improve from the first run, managed to find and apparently I needed it.

“I just need a good, clean start, nothing amazing. No need to be a hero in turn 1 and then go for it.”

Bottas currently sits fourth in the F1 world drivers’ championship and 53 points off Mercedes teammate Hamilton at the top of standings after the opening eight races.

The Finnish driver has the opportunity to repeat his 2017 feat of taking pole position and victory at the Austria Grand Prix, while Spielberg also hosted his maiden F1 podium with Williams back in 2014.