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Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas claimed his first ever pole position in Formula 1 today by setting a time that was two-hundredths of a second faster than team mate Lewis Hamilton's.
Bottas becomes the fifth Finnish driver to take a pole position, and it will be the first time he lines up at the front of the pack since 2011, when he was competing in GP3.
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"I'm obviously really happy," said Bottas. "It's my first pole in my career, and my fifth season now in Formula 1, so it took a few races but we got it, and hopefully it's the first of many.
"We've made a really good job this weekend to focus on the evening conditions and get a lot of lap time out of this car in slightly cooler conditions.
"Hopefully that's going to help us tomorrow. It's not an easy track to get everything right, it's quite technical, there's a few difficult braking points. Turning in to the corners it's easy to have a lock-up or miss the apex slightly, so it's just getting the lap together and the car well balanced. It was a good enough lap for pole today, so that's good."
While he is enjoying the feeling of euphoria, he knows that he still needs to get the ultimate job done in tomorrow's race, as there are no prizes for pole position.
"We need to enjoy it for a short period of time, enjoy what you've done, but the main thing is tomorrow," he said. "There's no point to start dreaming, we need to look at everything we can, work as a team and plan a good strategy for the race tomorrow.
"We need to focus for the race and get the maximum out of it. But definitely it's a good place to start and I think as a team we can be really strong tomorrow and hopefully get a one-two, the first one for the year."
Fergal Walsh
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