Bottas keen to make up for Brazil loss after grabbing Abu Dhabi pole

Valtteri Bottas is eager to make up for his defeat from pole position at the last Formula 1 race in Brazil by converting his qualifying advantage into victory to end the season in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Bottas edged out Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.172 seconds in the final stage of qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday to clinch his fourth pole position of the season and second in a row.

Bottas keen to make up for Brazil loss after grabbing Abu Dhabi pole

Valtteri Bottas is eager to make up for his defeat from pole position at the last Formula 1 race in Brazil by converting his qualifying advantage into victory to end the season in Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Bottas edged out Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.172 seconds in the final stage of qualifying at the Yas Marina Circuit on Saturday to clinch his fourth pole position of the season and second in a row.

Bottas lost out in Brazil on the run down to Turn 1, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel making a decisive pass en route to victory, leaving the Mercedes driver to settle for second place at the chequered flag.

Without a win since the Austrian Grand Prix in July, Bottas is fired up to make his pole position count on Sunday and end the season on a high.

"It’s always a good feeling and this is only my fourth pole position in Formula 1, but it was a very clean and good session for us, really seamless," Bottas said.

"The team did a really good job with the time to send us to the track, we just had to do very minor changes during qualifying in the settings, so I just had to focus on the driving because the lap time was there.

"I managed to put it all pretty much together in the first run of Q3, That was a really good lap and in the end it was good enough for pole.

"But tomorrow is the big day. There’s no point getting too excited today. Today is today but tomorrow is the day."

Bottas has converted just one of his three previous pole positions in F1 into a race win (Austria), having lost out to Vettel in both Brazil and Bahrain earlier in the year.

"I was so gutted in Brazil missing the win from pole. I have a clear target for tomorrow and I’m sure the fans will support me," Bottas said.

"When you start from pole the target has to be the win, but from P2 or P3 it’s also possible. Yes, I only once won from pole, but I haven’t had that many poles yet. Let’s see tomorrow."

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