Valtteri Bottas feels he has learned important lessons from his previous race after claiming pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Bottas qualified eighth last time out at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Max Verstappen took victory for Red Bull.
Verstappen had been tipped to grab pole in Portimao but, after struggling in the windy conditions, he was denied the fastest lap after a correction to avoid a crash at Turn 4 saw his time chalked off for exceeding track limits.
Bottas will start Sunday's race from the front of the grid, denying team-mate Lewis Hamilton the 100th pole of his career by 0.007 seconds, with Verstappen in third.
The Finnish driver was in buoyant mood after tying the great Jackie Stewart on 17 career pole positions, especially given his inauspicious drive at Imola last month, when a crash with George Russell ended a disappointing race weekend.
"It definitely put a smile on my face, because in the first two races of the season, the qualifying really from my side… at least the Q3 session hasn't been the strong point and getting everything out of the car and tyres to work well has been a bit of a weakness," he said.
"But now, it felt like things are starting to go in the right direction. I've been feeling strong all weekend so I knew it was possible and it definitely makes me really happy to put it together in Q3 and be on pole. And as a team as well, with the pressure and with the battle from Red Bull, it's good to be ahead.
"Mentally, I took all the learning points [from Imola], and there were a lot of lessons from that last race, as always. So, I took those, and the rest that I should forget, I completely moved aside and forgot those and moved on."
Hamilton was able to secure a 71st front-row lockout for Mercedes since 2014 but struggled throughout the session, while even the softer compound in Q3 did not yield sufficient grip for better times.
"There was honestly so much time available and I just didn't put it together," said the reigning world champion. "It's really tricky conditions here. The surface of the track is very smooth, and not a lot of grip and the tyres – you need extra laps to get the temperatures even though it's a really nice day.
"Then the balance… one minute you have grip; the next minute, you don't, so it's very tricky for everyone.
"It felt quite good in P3 today and on that Q2 lap it felt solid, and I thought that we were in the right window but it's temperatures... there are gusts of wind so you can be unlucky and get tail winds that perhaps you wouldn't normally get on particular corners."
Verstappen, meanwhile, is hoping for better on Sunday after admitting the lack of grip has made little about the weekend enjoyable so far.
Having won from third at Imola, he remains hopeful Red Bull's straight-line speed will be enough to put the Mercedes under pressure as he aims to overturn the one-point gap to Hamilton in the standings.
"It's been a bit hit and miss anyway, the whole weekend; we're just struggling a lot to find the balance," said Verstappen, who, like the front two, will start the race on medium tyres.
"To be honest, I didn't enjoy one single lap this weekend, just because of the state of the track. I mean the layout is amazing but the grip we are experiencing I don't think is nice. I know it's the same for everyone but for me personally, it's just not enjoyable to drive.
"We'll see [on Sunday] what we can do. It's not so easy to follow here but if we have good pace then, for sure, we'll put the pressure on."
Ricciardo ready to experience the world of motorsport amid F1 exit rumours
Daniel Ricciardo revealed his desire to experience the world of motorsport as his 13-year Formula One career hangs in the balance ahead of the 2025 season.
Ricciardo, who has raced for five different teams in F1, is yet to find out whether he will race for RB next year.
The Australian and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda were considered the favourites to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull until the Mexican signed a new two-year deal.
Red Bull is a team Ricciardo knows well, of course.
Ricciardo has won eight F1 races during his career, seven of which came with the Austrian-based team before his move to Renault in 2019.
Across his 257 race entries, the 35-year-old has also claimed 1,329 points and 32 podiums, but Ricciardo has been unable to get close to the top three in recent times.
The Australian has not stood on the podium since his last victory at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021, picking up just 55 points over the last three seasons for an RB team who have struggled to emerge from the midfield places in a competitive grid.
Ricciardo finds himself 14th in the drivers' championship this term, with his best finish coming at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, where he finished eighth.
With time potentially running out on his F1 career heading into the final seven races of the 2024 season, Ricciardo kept his options open as to what may come next.
“I mean there's things I would like to try and experience," Ricciardo said in an interview with Tourism Western Australia ahead of the release of his new film 'Drive the Dream 2.0'.
"I don't know, let's say on a competitive level, I grew up a fan of NASCAR. I'd like to drive a NASCAR. I'd love to drive around Daytona, for example.
"But would I like to compete? Yes and no, but I also know that, it's not what I grew up doing, and I'll probably get smoked so like, I don't know if I need that!
"I would love to experience it. I love motorbikes. I love MotoGP. I would love to try a MotoGP bike, but I would be very, very slow and probably horrendous. Just like, all in my own time.
"And actually Bathurst, if it's, obviously okay, it's the V8 that does the race there, but you know there's the 12 hour and stuff, so maybe that's one I could compete in.
"If a V8 team said 'hey, do you want to do a few laps around Bathurst, no pressure, just to experience it', then I'll definitely take that up."
Russell 'surprised' by Baku podium as Hamilton lauds next generation
George Russell was left surprised after his podium finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday, but tempered Mercedes' expectations for the rest of the season.
Russell, who started fifth on the grid in Baku, inherited third place on the penultimate lap of proceedings after Sergio Perez's collision with Carlos Sainz.
The Briton claimed his third podium for Mercedes this season, while team-mate Lewis Hamilton made it double points for the Silver Arrows after finishing ninth.
Russell moved level with Red Bull's Perez in the drivers' championship and is now 23 points behind Hamilton ahead of the final seven races.
However, Russell acknowledged where Mercedes ranked in the pecking order at the end of a tricky weekend that saw the team complete two power unit changes.
“Definitely surprised,” Russell said about his podium finish. “I think there was so much hard work this weekend for everybody in the team.
"There were engine changes on my side, engine changes for Lewis, so much going on, everybody was working so hard.
“We had a really bad start to the race. I was dropping off a lot, but on the hard tyre I think we were one of the quickest out there and that was great.
"Got past Max, so an added bonus to stand on the podium.
“I mean we’ve got to be realistic still. We should’ve finished fifth today. That was the true result.
"Obviously, with Lando [Norris’] qualifying yesterday, he probably would’ve been up there as well, so I don’t want to get carried away with ourselves with this podium today.
"We’ve got a lot of work to do. Hopefully, Singapore’s a slightly better weekend.”
As for Hamilton, having taken on a raft of new power unit components after qualifying, he was resigned to a long afternoon after his pit lane start.
He made up plenty of ground early on, and again after his pit stop, but spent much of the latter part of the race battling Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman.
Colapinto impressed in just his second race for Williams, scoring four points after finishing in eighth, while team-mate Alex Albon finished one place in front.
And Bearman, who replaced the suspended Kevin Magnussen for Haas, completed the top 10, which came with a record-breaking achievement.
The 19-year-old became the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two Formula One races, having made his debut in March for Ferrari as a last-minute replacement for Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, finishing in seventh.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton showered praise on the two rookies after the race, with the Briton, who will be replaced by youngster Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes next season, insisting the future is bright for the sport.
“Today was a difficult race,” Hamilton said.
"“We had a good day on Friday, but the rest of the weekend was tough. We made some changes heading into Saturday that didn’t work out, but we had to live with them.
“We also knew it would be challenging to overtake today. Despite the long straight, it is hard to follow through the second sector.
"Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman, who I was racing for a lot of the afternoon, did such a great job.
"It is great to see the youngsters like them coming through and doing so well. For their first and second races, it was very impressive.”
Red Bull paid the price for 'uncontrollable' RB20 in Baku, says Verstappen
Max Verstappen lamented Red Bull's changes that left the RB20 "uncontrollable" at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen could only manage fifth place around the streets of Baku, but remains 59 points ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris, who finished one place in front.
But the Dutchman was the beneficiary of a collision involving Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap of the race.
Verstappen has now gone six grand prix without a pole position and seven without a victory, last winning at the Spanish Grand Prix in June.
The three-time world champion cited issues with his car during qualifying that seemed to carry over into the race, but is confident Red Bull can respond in Singapore next time.
"I think the changes we did to the car were positive, but then you still need of course to do the set-up on the car," Verstappen said.
“I think we were heading in the right direction but then the changes that we made before qualifying tipped it over the edge.
"We paid the price for that in the race unfortunately.”
The Dutchman was able to further detail the difficulties he experienced on track, saying: “My wheels were literally coming off the ground.
“Then of course you lose contact patch with the tarmac which you don’t want.
"That then caused me to slide a lot more, overheat the tyres more and there was no way to drive around it so the pace was just a bit all over the place.
“I had to box and then it was just a bit unfortunate I got stuck behind Alex and Lando.
"I was in that fight, George passed me, and then we actually had good pace, the two of us.
"We were catching the leaders but then as soon as I got close to George again within that window where you have the dirty air, because of the jumping that I’m dealing with I’m sliding already quite a bit.
“And then when I get close to him I’m sliding even more and that just tipped it over the edge where it becomes quite uncontrollable towards the end of the race, which was very difficult again.”
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