Bottas: 'Brazil pole shows that hard work always pays off'

Valtteri Bottas said he was still shaking after successfully clinching pole position for this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver recorded a best time of 1:08.322s in the final round of qualifying. That put him 0.038s clear of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

The two had been trading top times all through the session, with Bottas managing to dig deep just when it mattered most at the end of Q3 to claim his third career pole in Formula 1.

"I feel good. Still a bit shakey," he said afterwards. "It's a good feeling. Just a nice lap. It was so close between Sebastian all through the qualifying, sometimes with Kimi [Raikkonen] as well. Got a good lap in the end.

"Definitely feels good. It was so close in qualifying, as it always is here," he added.

Bottas had been left carrying the Mercedes banner after his team mate Lewis Hamilton unexpectedly crashed out at the start of Q1.

"Obviously Lewis was out at the beginning which was a shame for us. But I'm happy I could stand up for us," he said. "It's a shame that Lewis wasn't there in Q2 and Q3 to fight for the pole.

"I'm happy that even though we only proceeded after Q1 with the one car I could deliver and we could still get the pole."

• Bottas on pole in Brazil after Hamilton crashes out

Pole could hardly have come at a better time for the Finn. After finding early successes in the first half of the season, Bottas has been in something of a funk since the summer. He admitted that he has been struggling to regain the form that saw him win in Russia and Austria.

"Everyone knows there were many difficult races for me, but managed to learn from those," he said. "We've been working hard on the issues.

"Solving every issue one at a time. Going deep into myself, what I needed to change - if I needed to change anything. Working on those things with the engineers and with myself.

"The last three races I think it's been a step up," he said. "And here it was a lot better. Hard work will always pay off!"

With Mercedes having clinched the constructors title and Hamilton crowned 2017 drivers champion, the team's attention is now on securing second place for Bottas. He said that objective was giving him a clear boost.

"Always having a good goal, a good target, it makes everyone in the team work harder," he said. "We have a clear goal of still trying to be second in the drivers championship with me."

Bottas is currently 15 points behind Vettel in the drivers standings with two races remaining. A win tomorrow could almost halve that at a stroke.

"It's going to be important to have a good clean race tomorrow," he agreed. "Not going to be easy for sure, they're quick as well.

"It's really good to start from the pole here. We have a good car. It's going to be a close race still with Ferrari, but I'd rather start from pole. Looking forward to tomorrow!"

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