Lewis Hamilton believes his Mercedes Formula One team can live up to their advance billing as favourites when the season starts in Australia next week.
Hamilton, Bottas's team mate, started in eighth place after a grid penalty triggered by an unscheduled gearbox change and finished fourth.
Champions Mercedes are chasing a sixth successive double, and Lewis Hamilton his sixth drivers' title, but the task looks tougher than ever.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton produced a moment of Montreal magic on Saturday to put his Mercedes on pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix and equal Ayrton Senna's career haul of 65.
The win also set a record, one that Hamilton had previously shared with seven times champion Michael Schumacher, of 41 wins from pole position.
The German was joined on the front row of the grid by reigning world champion and closest rival Lewis Hamilton, in a Mercedes.
Sebastian Vettel drove a flawless tactical race to claim his maiden victory for Ferrari at the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday, registering the first Formula One win for the Italian team since 2013.
'The heart still bleeds for the Brazilian who gave us the finest, most memorable start we've seen in Formula One for many a year,' says Raja Sen.
Triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday after a last-lap collision with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg as they fought for the lead.
Dutch teenager Max Verstappen became Formula One's youngest race winner on Sunday in a sensational Spanish Grand Prix that saw dominant Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collide on the opening lap.
'The phenomenal Max Verstappen was both sloppy and superb in Germany, getting caught out during the first two starts, and even spinning his car around to give the crowd something to gasp at with a Batmobile-esque 360 degree turn. 'After Hamilton crashed and Verstappen sniffed victory, though, he pounced hard, put his foot down, and took a deserved race win,' says Rediff's F1 columnist Raja Sen.
Lewis Hamilton landed an early psychological blow ahead of Formula One's Abu Dhabi title showdown by lapping faster than Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg in both Friday practice sessions.
The four times world champion is enjoying his best start to a season since he was at Red Bull in 2011, leading Lewis Hamilton by seven points after two wins and a second place from the first three races.
The Briton eased his Mercedes across the line 6.2 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, with Max Verstappen, who started 16th, finishing a surprise third for Red Bull.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton saw off a strong Ferrari challenge at the Italian team's home Grand Prix to seal his seventh pole position in a row and 11th in 12 races on Saturday.
Formula One rolls into Malaysia this week for the second round of the championship at the Sepang International Circuit, where talk surrounding the utter dominance of Mercedes will for once take a back seat to the belated arrival of Fernando Alonso.
This is the German's 50th career win
Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes suffered a rare mechanical failure on Friday as Formula One teams wrapped up pre-season testing in Barcelona with Ferrari back on top of the timesheets.
A prototype 'halo' head protection device made its Formula One test debut in Spain on Thursday, with Kimi Raikkonen declaring visibility to be 'okay' after lapping with it attached to the cockpit of his Ferrari.
A new qualifying format will shake up the Formula One starting grids this season, adding to the stress on teams and drivers and making races more exciting.
'It's a great job by the team. Usually in the first day you don't get that many laps so I'm really happy'
Electrical gremlins held up Lewis Hamilton in Italian Grand Prix practice on Friday after the Mercedes driver had lapped more than half a second quicker than anyone else in the morning session.
The last time Kimi Raikkonen stood on top of a Formula One podium, Lewis Hamilton had just joined Mercedes with one championship to his name and Sebastian Vettel was riding high with Red Bull.
Germany's Nico Rosberg took a controversial pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday after an incident that denied unhappy Mercedes team mate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton the chance to beat him.
Formula One world championship leader Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday in the German's 200th race start.
Vettel came out on top, giving Ferrari their first pole position since 2012 with a masterful lap around the floodlit Singaporean track.
Lewis Hamilton won his home British Grand Prix for the fourth year in a row on Sunday while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel suffered a penultimate lap puncture that slashed his championship lead to a single point.
Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel gave a planned new electric series a firm thumbs-down on Saturday, saying silent motor racing left him cold.
The clock is ticking for some of Formula One's big name drivers, with world champions and race winners out of contract at the end of the season and a restless young generation eager to take their places.
Formula One's first pre-season test ended in Jerez with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen fastest.
The Mercedes driver's 55th career win was hard-fought and tense, however, with Ferrari's Vettel seizing the lead at the start and in the hunt all the way to the finish as the tyre strategies played out.
Daniel Ricciardo was a surprise third fastest in his Red Bull, the Australian leaping up the order late in the session after sitting out the opening 45 minutes as the team struggled to cool their brakes.
Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel limbered up for a Japanese Grand Prix that could bring him a fourth successive title on Sunday with the fastest time in Friday practice.
Images from the Laureus World Awards held in Monaco on Tuesday
One thing is certain: The part-Goan, part-Malayali group CEO of Air Asia is not your usual boardroom CEO, and he cultivates the maverick businessman image, buying race car teams and football clubs and taking off-beat bets with his mentor and now buddy Richard Branson of Virgin.
Briton Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position at the German Grand Prix on a mixed Saturday for Mercedes, whose misjudgement left last week's Silverstone winner Nico Rosberg 11th on the grid for their home race.
The deepening of the Formula One financial crisis prompted Force India boss Vijay Mallya to say that the sport's owners must fix the revenue sharing model among teams for the survival of smaller outfits like his.
The billionaires, supermodels and suntanned celebrities sipping cocktails in the Monaco sunshine might wonder what planet Jacques Villeneuve is on.
Ross Brawn will stand down as principal and leave the Mercedes Formula One team at the end of the year, Mercedes said in a statement on Thursday.
Lewis Hamilton can set more British Formula One records in Brazil this weekend but it is the world championship he wants and that will have to wait.
