Bottas: "Hopefully we can keep Verstappen behind us"

Valtteri Bottas will have the tough task of keeping Max Verstappen behind him at Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver would be doing himself and title contender Lewis Hamilton a big favour. Bottas expects the start of the race to be the deciding factor.

"Start is always a risk. We have a pretty good race car as long as I don't do mistakes we take be able to keep him behind hopefully and then the strategy will play a part," Bottas said to Sky Sports' camera. The Finnish driver still has no victory behind his name in 2021 and in Turkey, all the ingredients for that seem to be in place.

Indeed, Bottas' W12 seems a lot more competitive than Verstappen's car. "I am confident in the car and I need to focus on myself and take it step by step. In both wet and the dry the car felt good," he continued.

Bottas' advantage at the start

Bottas will start on the outside at Istanbul Park, while Verstappen will start on the dirty side on Sunday afternoon. The Dutchman is therefore at a slight disadvantage, but Bottas will have to be sharp and give everything from the first minute.