Bottas hopeful: 'Then it will be a battle again on Sunday'

Valtteri Bottas put in a strong performance on Friday night by taking first place in qualifying. The Finn was faster than Lewis Hamilton who finished second.

Qualifying is the starting point for Saturday when a sprint race is scheduled. "I think the sprint race is an opportunity to take a few points. Then on Sunday, it will be another battle. Now I just focus on tomorrow first and try to deal with it on Sunday," Bottas stated in conversation with Motorsport.com.

Bottas noted that his car performed extremely well at the Italian Grand Prix. "The car is really good this weekend and we saw that there is also a gap compared to Red Bull. So the car is maybe stronger than we expected so far this weekend, and hopefully, it will be the same in the race."

The Finn can put the points to good use in the battle with Lando Norris and Sergio Pérez for third place in the world championship. Bottas is on 123 points, while Norris has so far scored six points less.