Bottas lays out 'optimal outcome' for 100th race with Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas is set to undertake his 100th Grand Prix with Mercedes this weekend in Jeddah, a milestone he hopes to celebrate with an outright win.

The penultimate round of the F1 world championship in Saudi Arabia will also be Bottas' next to last race with Mercedes before he moves to Alfa Romeo Racing for 2022.

Asked on Thursday about his expectations for this weekend's event in which his support role for teammate Lewis Hamilton's title ambitions against Max Verstappen could be crucial, Bottas offered a predictable reply.

"Obviously, for me, winning the race!" smiled the Finn. "That's the target, always.

"If that's not the case, then maximise the points, especially in the Constructors' [standings] - it's an important one and it's super close.

©Mercedes

"So trying to have a strong, clean weekend as a team, without issues, and hopefully with a big amount of points, and we move on to Abu Dhabi.

"I think that's the optimal outcome from this weekend."

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Ahead of F1's historic premiere in Saudi Arabia, pundits have played up Mercedes' chances based on Hamilton's dominant displays in Brazil and in Qatar.

But Bottas want to get a "real life" feel for Jeddah's high-speed layout before risking a prediction.

"It's really high speed, quite narrow in places, definitely penalising for any mistakes," he said. "I'm looking forward to actually feeling how it is in real life - it's an interesting one.

"[We need to] try to stay out of trouble, because it's a new track and I feel like it could be a bit messy at times, with the track still being a bit dirty and etcetera."

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