Bottas aiming to delay Hamilton’s 7th F1 title coronation in Turkey

Valtteri Bottas says he's hoping he is able to delay Lewis Hamilton from winning his seventh Formula 1 title for 'as long as he can'.

Going into this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix, Hamilton is on the brink of winning a seventh world title.

He sits 85 points clear of Bottas in the drivers’ championship with just four races remaining in 2020.

With only 104 points left on the table, Bottas must outscore Hamilton by at least eight points to ensure it goes to the next round in Bahrain.

Bottas has only outscored Hamilton by eight points or more on just two occasions this season - the season-opener in Austria and the Russian Grand Prix.

Looking ahead to this weekend, Bottas said: “It’s another race weekend and, as always, we’ve done all the work beforehand. We’ll try to do the best job we can as a team and me, I shouldn’t think too much on the points or anything, but, for sure, I’ll try delay Lewis securing the title for as long as I can – that’s for sure.”

Having not hosted an F1 race since 2011, Istanbul Park has undergone re-surface work ahead of this weekend’s return.

Bottas suspects the new tarmac will be very low grip as it was at Portimao, which also had a new tarmac laid down for the Portuguese Grand Prix last month.

“I raced here with GP3 back in 2011, which is a while ago,” Bottas added. “Obviously, I remember some bits, but it’s going to be completely different in a Formula One car and I think it’s the same for everyone. Since some drivers have been here with Formula One, as Lewis said, there have been some pretty big steps in the sport, so it’s a bit of a new track for everyone, so that’s good.

“As we’ve seen in Portugal, I think the big thing is going to be understanding the new surface, the tarmac that has been laid as I think it’s going to be pretty slippery. We’ll go step by step.”