F1 | Imola GP | Valtteri Bottas says he "definitely had the shakes" after clinching pole position
Following the norm for this year, the front row of the grid is always split between the two Mercedes drivers, it was Valtteri Bottas’s turn for this week’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, who was able to pip his team-mate by just 0.1s
Since Nurburgring, the last Grand Prix when the Finnish driver was on pole, Bottas wasn’t able to pip his six team-mate Lewis Hamilton, always missing out the pole by a tenth or even hundredths of a second on several occasion. But this for this week’s Grand Prix Bottas put his head down and extracted the most out of his w11 and succeeded to beat his team-mate by just 0.1s
Talking about his Pole lap in post Qualifying debrief Valtteri told the media that he was shaking after pushing the limits to get this pole position.
“When you push flat out, it’s a beautiful feeling and I knew I had to dig deep on the final lap. I was able to find the small gains I needed and it’s a great feeling when you manage that – I definitely had the shakes after that one!”
Explaining his lap and shedding light on how he managed to take pole position Bottas told the track is not the easiest and limited track time made it trickier.
After, losing out the first flying runs by just 0.031s Bottas knew he had to give in everything to snatch the pole from his team-mate.
It’s never easy to get pole position but I’m really enjoying this track.”
“For me, Turns 2 and 3 were something I really had to work on today, and I only got there right at the end; the same at the final corners, where I’d struggled with some instability but I knew I really had to push at the end, so I risked it and the car just turned in nicely. I was able to find the small gains I needed and it’s a great feeling when you manage that,” told Bottas.
Rundown to the turn 1, Valtteri Bottas expects a tough fight, as it’s the longest run down to the turn one of the calendar year and drivers behind him having a slipstream won’t help him.
“Tomorrow, it’s going to be a good fight: it’s one of the longest runs of the calendar into Turn 1, so no doubt Lewis and Max will be chasing me. But it’s a good place to start and hopefully the pace is good. Game on!”
No matter who wins for Mercedes tomorrow, they only need 11 points to lock the 2020 constructors title which will be there 7th consecutive and they must have tees prepared as only a double dnf can deny them that cause scoring 11 points with the w11 isn’t inevitable.
