Bottas Not Panicking Yet

It was a disappointing start to his 2018 campaign but Bottas says he remains as focused as ever going into Bahrain.

Valtteri Bottas has said he won't beat himself up over his qualifying mistake that compromised his weekend in Melbourne. Bottas crashed on his first Q3 run at turn 3 having made a mistake into the first corner.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, the Finn said he learnt a lot in his first season with Mercedes and he won't be too hard on himself at this early stage, saying he thinks he is happy with his preparations.

"I think so. I think it's something I learned from last year.

"You need to learn from every mistake but there's a limit to how much you need to beat yourself up because there's always a race in one or two weeks again and you need to be at your best mental shape.

"It was not a good weekend, but what can do you do? I think the qualifying mistake kind of ruined the weekend.

"I'm not panicking. It's just one race out of 21."

Bottas looked like he would have been capable of locking out the front row for the Silver Arrows, teammate Lewis Hamilton stunned the rest of the grid with a time that was 0.6s quicker than anybody else.

"I felt like I was starting to get things right and in Q2 the pace was very similar to Lewis' and he did a really good job in Q3 where I shunted," he said.

"I knew that with the lap I had in Q2 there was a lot more to come. I know the speed is there and we'll try again in two weeks."

Bottas could only recover on Sunday to 8th position as many drivers found out during the race overtaking at the Albert Park circuit was as difficult as it comes. It is a crucial year for Bottas, his Mercedes contract is not set in stone and he will need to turn the momentum his way very soon if he wishes to keep his seat with the reigning world champions.