Bottas Takes a Sly Dig at Vettel after Austria Qualifying

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas narrowly edged out teammate Lewis Hamilton to take pole in Austria. Behind them was the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Max Verstappen was 5th ahead of Romain Grosjean in 6th for Haas.

The Frenchman managed to sandwich himself between the 2 Red Bulls with Ricciardo behind. Teammate Kevin Magnussen was 8th ahead of the Renault duo of Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Ocon heads the drivers knocked out in Q2 from Gasly, LeClerc, Alonso and Stroll. However, LeClerc will get a penalty for changing his gearbox and will likely drop to 18th.

In Q1 however, there were a few stunned faces as Sergio Perez was among the eliminated drivers. Joining him were Hartley, Ericsson, Vandoorne and Sirotkin. Vandoorne qualified 16th ahead of Perez with Sirotkin, Hartley and Ericsson in that order.

During the post-qualifying press conference, Bottas said: “The car felt so good. In the last run I knew there was a tenth or so to improve and I managed to find it.

“I need a good clean start tomorrow and there is no need to be a hero in Turn 1. I can guarantee I am more hungry for the win than anyone else on the grid.”

Many could possibly interpret this statement as a sly dig at Sebastian Vettel. The Finnish Mercedes driver is yet to open his winning account this season and had his race ruined in France last week.

The culprit at the time was Vettel when he attempted a dive-bomb, only for the two to collide. While Vettel was able to recover to finish 5th, Bottas wasn’t as lucky. Understandably, the 28-year old would still be a touch sore, but what’s done is done. Now, he can only look forward to the Austrian GP race on Sunday.

According to the latest news, Vettel is under investigation for allegedly impeding Carlos Sainz.