Bottas: There is a long run to Turn 1...

With Max Verstappen on pole by a quarter of a second after qualifying at Le Castellet, the two Mercs of Lewis Hamilton and Bottas behind him will be hard to contain, and they have not been shy to point it out to their rivals through the media.

First Hamilton mentioned it during his parc ferme interview, and now Bottas made mention of the tactic in the team's qualifying report: "There is a long run to Turn 1 so we have to get a good start tomorrow and for sure they will be very close but our long-run pace in FP2 looked good so I expect another tight battle."

After his forgettable weekends in Monaco and Baku, Bottas was back with a new chassis, called for by him, clearly proving that whatever W12 he was driving then was off-kilter.

Bottas continued: "It's been a strong weekend, for sure a lot better than a couple of weeks ago and I was hoping to fight for the pole. The last run in Q3 felt good so I didn't feel like there was much more lap time to make up.

"I think Red Bull had the edge in a straight line here which made the difference. We are definitely fighting for the win tomorrow, we're between the two Red Bulls with two cars against one so on strategy, we can be smart and bring the challenge to them.

"Nothing is going to come easy but we're ready for the challenge," added Bottas who needs a string of strong results to shut down the growing speculation about his future with Mercedes and, with it, make a case for them to extend his deal when contract renewal time comes around.