- Abu Dhabi GP - Qualifying
Bottas won't dwell on affecting title fight
Valtteri Bottas says he is not going to get distracted by the impact he could have on the title fight with fourth place in the championship up for grabs in Abu Dhabi.
Bottas qualified third at Yas Marina and could sway the title in favour of pole-sitter Nico Rosberg if he finishes ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who lines up second. Bottas is sixth in the championship but there are only three points between the Williams driver, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, something the Finn says is his only concern on Sunday.
When asked if he was daunted by the impact he could on the title fight after Rosberg joked he would buy the Finn an all-inclusive spa day as encouragement, Bottas said: "No, not at all. I think it's kind of cool that I can be part of something. The maximum I can get at the moment is fourth in the championship. The main thing for us as a team is securing third place, that's our target tomorrow. Our goal is to finish as high as possible which is no different to any other race."
Mercedes showed very strong race pace during practice but Williams is renowned for not showing its full hand on Fridays. Bottas is refusing to make any predictions about Williams' race pace but thinks its straight-line speed could make him a factor if he has the pace to challenge Mercedes.
"It's difficult to say, we'll see tomorrow," Bottas replied when asked if he could keep Hamilton behind if he gets in front at the first corner. "As we've seen this season it's difficult to predict in detail about the race pace how we will be, how the tyres will behave, the long stints we can do. There's a lot of factors. We have quick straight-line speed normally and that helps us defend even in DRS.
"It's difficult to say now but we will see tomorrow. Sometimes this season it has been difficult to predict in detail about the race pace, how we are going to be, how tyres will behave, the long stints we can do. There are a lot of factors. We will see. We have quick straight-line speed normally so that usually helps us defend on our side."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
