Bottas gunning for repeat of last season

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has revealed he is hoping to repeat last season's heroics in Abu Dhabi, in order to get his first and only win of the 2018 season.

Bottas has been very unfortunate not to win a race this season, with a safety car problem in China, a puncture in Baku, a strategy error in England and team orders preventing him an almost certain win in Russia.

The Finn managed to bow out of the 2017 season with a spectacular win in Abu Dhabi, and managed to top the second free pratice session on Friday.

"Practice 2 did feel good, but Practice 1; not so good," Bottas admitted. "I think it is quite unusual here that while the track is still a bit green and is the only session that mattered for the weekend."

Bottas admitted that the practice sessions are almost not important due to the temperatures being much higher in qualifying and the race.

"You can get your eye in (in FP1) and then FP3 is a great chance to get confused," Bottas said. "If we make setup changes now then it is very difficult to try it out in FP3 as we need to anticipate for the evening session.