Bottas proud of "calm" team

Valtteri Bottas is one of the coolest characters in Formula One and he has praised his Mercedes team for doing exactly the same during the hectic qualifying session that resulted in him trailing Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes 1-2.

The Finn, who was ordered to move aside to allow Hamilton through for the win in Russia next week, has another great chance to record a podium and if things go his way, perhaps a first win of the season.

Bottas has surprisingly never finished on the podium at Suzuka but looks very likely to put that right this weekend, especially with Sebastian Vettel starting in ninth and Daniel Ricciardo way down the field after a power issue at the start of Q2.

Vettel is so far down the field after his Ferrari team sent him out on the intermediate tyres when the track was dry enough for slicks.

By the time the German had returned to the pitlane to switch onto slick tyres, the rain had come enough to make the track too treacherous to set a competitive lap time on.

Bottas praised his team for their relaxed approach to the situation, saying; “The Ferraris pulled out the garage on the inters and I honestly didn't’ think it was the right decision. Obviously we made the right decision as a team.

“Today there was no mistakes made, even though there was pressure on us still, as there always is in qualifying, everyone was cool, calm and collected.”

“I’ve been in this team for less than two seasons and from what I’ve seen, today was one of our best days as a group.

“Everyone should be really proud with what we did, first of all with the car, but also with the way the team worked today. Every single decision was right and everyone was calm.

“It might look weird from the outside that it was such a hectic session and so on, but everything was so calm inside. We were just sticking to our plan and making the right choices.”