Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Bottas keen to dispatch Hulkenberg quickly

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Valtteri Bottas says yellow flags saw him lose out to Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying in Austria but is keen to jump the Force India quickly in the race.

Hulkenberg produced an impressive lap to split the two Williams drivers and take P5 ahead of Bottas on Saturday. Bottas says his own final lap was poor before a yellow flag stopped him using DRS, but with strong long runs under his belt on Friday the Finn is optimistic for Sunday's race.

"It was really tight as expected, we just didn’t have pace enough to match Mercedes or Ferrari," Bottas said. "A bit unfortunate Hulkenberg got in front of me but the Q3 run was nothing special.

"I was hoping the track would be better in Q3 and then there was the yellow flag. On the turn two exit, when there is a yellow flag, the DRS doesn’t work so I knew it was game over and I wasn’t actually improving.

"Not the best qualifying for me bit not that bad for us as a team because we know we have good race pace and so far it has looked the most promising of the Fridays, so we are hopeful for tomorrow, it is a long race."

When asked specifically about Hulkenberg's pace, Bottas believes the Force India will not be a threat but wants to make sure he dispatches him quickly.

"Here it is still not easy because it is the same engine but we know they are going to struggle much more in the race, so for us it will be crucial to get past as quickly as possible. If we get stuck behind and they are slow with pace, then it will cost a lot."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.