Valtteri Bottas will start this weekend's Italian Grand Prix from fifth place on the grid, after pipping Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo to the position by just one thousandth of a second during the last round of Saturday's qualifying session at Monza.
Bottas revealed that he credited a late tweak he made to his helmet for getting him that last moment extra place over the Australian.
"Before the qualifying I took like a small cooling scoop - some of my helmet - off. I said to my trainer that this is going to be [worth] one thousandth [of a second] and I think that counted today!" the Williams driver said after the session.
"It was the best lap of the weekend. To be honest the whole of qualifying must have been one of my best. I just felt very confident in the car today and the whole weekend really, so just enjoyed it."
Bottas is now aiming to get ahead of the Ferraris who will be starting immediately ahead of him on the grid and believes that a podium position is a realistic prospect on Sunday.
"It's looking promising, but you never know how much Ferrari then has in their back pocket for tomorrow but I think we can fight for the positions ahead of us," he said.
"For us as a team we've been looking pretty strong this week in the longer runs, actually been feeling more comfortable with the car with high fuel than with the low fuel."
Bottas' form in qualifying was also hailed by Rob Smedley, the team's Head of Performance Engineering.
"Valtteri was awesome. Really, really good. He maximised the car and did everything that we needed him to," beamed Smedley.
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