Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Bottas hoping for tears between Ferrari and Mercedes

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Valtteri Bottas says Williams needs to make sure it is in position to take advantage of trouble between Ferrari and Mercedes this season.

Having been competitive throughout the weekend, the two Williams cars qualified fifth and sixth ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. While Ferrari and Mercedes appear to be too quick in race trim, Bottas says Williams must still make sure it secures its position behind the leading two teams to capitalised on any problems.

“We just need to maximise the points and keep getting consistently in the points because it is what it is at this point," Bottas said. "That’s all we can do. But I hope we can get more points.

"So far it has been really clean at the front. There has been nothing really happening at the front. At some point for sure things are going to go wrong with either Ferrari or Mercedes and we need to be as close as possible for that.”

And Bottas says the team should be able to match the strategy of the cars in front - something it failed to do in China - which will help it stay closer in the race.

“What has been positive this weekend is that we have really managed to get the option tyre to work better in qualifying and also in the long runs,” Bottas said. “So I think now at least we can try and run with the same strategy as the cars in front and that should hopefully bring us closer and then we will see tomorrow if the pace is enough to be fighting with them or not. But I think it is going to be difficult, although you never know.”

Asked if he is expecting another fight with Bottas, Massa replied: “Yeah, I think so. I think we are there, fifth and sixth. We were fighting in the last races, so it will be another race that we need to do everything correctly. Whatever little thing doesn’t happen in a proper way maybe you can lose the position to your team-mate.

“Valtteri did a very good lap, he was quite strong throughout the weekend so for sure it will not be an easy race with him tomorrow but let’s try. We have everything to do a good race tomorrow and it’s important to score some points like we did in the last few races, we know how important it is for the championship as well.”

Click here for analysis of the development war between Ferrari and Mercedes

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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.