Bottas is up for the Hamilton challenge

VALTTERI BOTTAS will head into Formula One’s season opener still in dreamland after securing the hottest seat in the sport.

But the Mercedes new boy insists he is ready to take the world championship fight to Lewis Hamilton this year.

Finnish driver Bottas fills the reigning title holder’s cockpit after he was elected by Mercedes to replace Nico Rosberg at the sport’s allconquering team.

The 27-year-old is yet to win in nearly 80 appearances, but he will start the new season among Hamilton’s chief contenders for a fourth title.

“I need to prove myself to a lot of people and the team that I deserve my place,” said Bottas with just five days to go before this year’s curtain raiser in Melbourne.

TENNIS Aljaz Bedene last night joined fellow Britons Kyle Edmund and Dan Evans in the main draw for the Miami Open after coming through qualifying with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Tobias Kamke of Germany.

ATHLETICS Paris says “it’s now or never” as it bids for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – and rival Los Angeles has told the International Olympic Committee it is not prepared to wait four more years either.

IOC president Thomas Bach last week gave the clearest indication yet that he is in favour of announcing hosts for both the next two summer Olympics at September’s IOC congress in Lima.

Paris and Los Angeles are competing for 2024 and speculation is growing that Bach wants both to win, so one would become host in 2028.

But Tony Estanguet, IOC member and co-chair of the Paris bid, said the French capital would only be able to host the Games for which it is bidding.

Estanguet said: “Our project is only possible for ‘24. We can’t accept ‘28. It’s not possible. It’s now or never.

“Either the IOC family wants to choose Paris for ‘24 or we will not come back for ‘28.”