Valtteri Bottas will be determined to banish his bitter Baku memories and vault back into the overall championship lead in this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Finn was on course for an almost certain win in last year's race, run through the streets of the capital Baku, when a blown tyre three laps from the end handed the victory to Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton instead.

The first win of what had until then been a lacklustre season for the Briton, it propelled him to ten more triumphs and a fifth world championship, even as Bottas ended the year without a single win. "That's life, that's how it goes sometimes, but it's early in the season and I'm only a few points behind in the championship," Bottas told reporters after the last race in China where conceded the championship lead to Hamilton and is now six points behind the 34-year-old with 18 races to run.