TEAM HARMONY AT MERCEDES PAYS OFF AS BOTTAS TAKES POLE
▶ German marque one-two on the grid in Austria with Hamilton content in second position
Two things will have pleased Mercedes-GP’s Toto Wolff at the Austrian Grand Prix yesterday.
One was of course his two cars again having the edge in qualifying, for the second successive weekend, as Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton completed a one-two at the Red Bull Ring.
But, after years of having to deal with internal squabbling and strife when Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were teammates for the German marque, he genuinely has two drivers who appear to get on well, which must make his life a lot easier.
As Bottas prepared to give a post-qualifying interview on the track he was embraced and congratulated by Hamilton, who had missed out on pole position to the Finn by just 0.019 seconds.
The genuine warmth between the pair was clear to see.
Hamilton is the midst of a fierce battle with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and has only a 14-point lead at the top of the standings. Another win today, after France seven days ago, would extend that advantage more so, but Hamilton was happy to acknowledge that Bottas did the better job yesterday. “I am happy with it,” the fourtime world champion said.
“Valtteri did a stunning lap on the first run and I did a little mistake and that kind of ended the run. This is a great result for the team and Valtteri deserved it today.”
Hamilton could afford to be upbeat as he outqualified Vettel. His mood will have been further improved with the news that his rival was later given a three-place grid penalty, dropping him to sixth, after he was found to have blocked Carlos Sainz’s Renault.
Bottas won from pole in Austria 12 months ago and will be confident of a repeat if he can successfully navigate his way around the first turn in front when the race begins at 5.10pm UAE time.
Though that might be easier said then done. Last Sunday his hopes of a strong result in France were ended when he was hit at Turn 1 by Vettel, and the Finn was not subtle in highlighting his desire to avoid a repeat of that today.
“Just need a good clean start, nothing amazing, no need to be a hero in Turn 1 and then go for it,” he said, with Vettel in his vicinity as he made the comment.
Bottas has yet to win a race this season, but arguably has had a more impressive year than his debut one with Mercedes last year.
He lost out on victories in China and Azerbaijan, when well placed, through no fault of his, and has more then held his own on pace against Hamilton for much of the season.
Bottas has now outqualified Hamilton four times in nine races, and with a little more fortune in the races he would be considerably closer to his teammate in the points standings than the 53 by which he trails him.
Kimi Raikkonen is only 48 points behind Vettel at Ferrari, but there is no question of which of the two Finns is doing the better job this season.
Bottas said of his first pole of 2018: “The whole weekend we have been making good progress with the set-up.
“The car felt so good and in the last run I knew there was 0.1secs I could improve on the first run and I managed to find it. Apparently I needed it.”
Mercedes have brought an upgrade to their package this weekend, which has left Bottas and Hamilton buoyant with the results clear to see on the track in terms of performance.
Vettel and Ferrari face another day of damage limitation from sixth place, though given the pace of the Ferrari he should still be capable of reaching the podium from there at a track where overtaking is very much possible
Romain Grosjean was the surprise package of qualifying as the Haas driver will start fourth, beating both Red Bull Racing cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, who will line up fifth and seventh.
Verstappen pipped Ricciardo for the third race in a row and then criticised the Australian for appearing to disobey team orders.
Ricciardo had been asked to run ahead of Verstappen with the aim of giving him a boost on the straights by following in his slipstream.
Ricciardo had been unhappy to do it for all three timed runs in the final part of qualifying, but Verstappen said: “It was very clear what the team wanted and what they said before qualifying and I stick with that.”
Grosjean was the surprise package of qualifying as the Haas driver will start fourth ahead of the Red Bull Racing pair