Valtteri Bottas will compete in his 100th race for Mercedes at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and he has only one goal in mind: to win.
Valtteri Bottas has made that he intends to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend, unless he is required to support teammate Lewis Hamilton’s title challenge against Max Verstappen.
Bottas will make his 100th appearance for Mercedes at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, after racing alongside Hamilton for five seasons and winning every world title during that time.
As of 2021, Hamilton is eight points behind Verstappen, while Mercedes is five points ahead of Red Bull.
“Winning is the target, always”
In an interview with accredited media, Bottas stated that he will go all out for victory, assuming that circumstances do not require him to step aside for Hamilton.
“Obviously, for me, winning the race!” Bottas laughed, when asked about his goal for the weekend. “That’s the target, always.
“If that’s not the case, then [we need to] maximise the points, especially in the Constructors’ [battle] – it’s an important one and it’s super close.
“So [we’ll be] trying to have a strong, clean weekend as a team, without issues, and hopefully with a big amount of points, and we move on to Abu Dhabi.
“I think that’s the optimal outcome from this weekend.”
“It could get a bit messy”
Bottas went on to say that it’s “difficult to anticipate” which team will have the pace advantage this weekend, but he’s looking forward to the challenge of the 6.174km, 27-corner track.
“It’s really high speed, quite narrow in places, definitely penalising for any mistakes,” he said of the layout. “I’m looking forward to actually feeling how it is in real life – it’s an interesting one.
“[We need to] try to stay out of trouble, because it’s a new track and I feel like it could be a bit messy at times, with the track still being a bit dirty and etcetera.”
Bottas is 13 points ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the Drivers’ standings.
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