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Bottas insists him and Hamilton are here to fight

Bottas insists him and Hamilton are "here to fight"

21-03-2019 16:11
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Bobby Vincent

Valtteri Bottas has insisted him and his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton are "here to fight" after the Finn drew the first blood at the weekend in the opening race of the Formula 1 season, winning the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton had no answer for Bottas' dominance in Melbourne - after his team-mate got off to a perfect start when the lights went out.

Bottas had a winless season in 2018 and a now "reloaded" Finnish driver could be ready to compete with his team-mate for his current title in 2019.

"We're all starting a new season with zero points, we are here to fight, both me and Lewis will want to fight this season, for sure, against each other and against everyone and we are still one team so no point in thinking about those kinds of things," Bottas said to reporters.

"Every year you learn as a person, you learn about yourself, what works for you, what doesn't work for you in terms of preparation and what preparation includes: how you rest, how you spend your free time, how you do the training, how much training, what kind, all those kind of things, travel plans, all sorts.

"So just trying to optimise everything for this year, try to maximise every single thing that is possible. I don't know, it's quite difficult to explain what's been going on here last winter, inside of my head and definitely something changed in terms of the way I feel about things in life in general and in racing, but that's all in my thoughts. I felt good in the car. That's all that matters."