Bottas ready to take next step with Williams

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Valtteri Bottas is ready to take the next step in his Formula One career and claim a race win for Williams in the 2015 season.

Williams have performed well during pre-season testing with Bottas and team-mate Felipe Massa the nearest challengers to Mercedes.

Bottas completed 179 laps across the 12 days of testing and at his fastest was just 0.041seconds behind defending champion Lewis Hamilton, leaving the Finn positive about Williams' chances in 2015.

"If we can have a quick car and Mercedes is not as far ahead as the timesheets are showing [in testing], then I hope so [the car can challenge for race wins]," he told ESPN F1. "I'm ready for it.

"I know that I'm a better driver than last year, I'm more ready personally and as a team we have improved a lot. 

"If we have a quick enough car we can do it [win a race] and there will be 20 opportunities to try and do that."

Bottas finished fourth in the drivers' standings in 2014 with six podiums, and he believes that experience can help him take the chequered flag first when the new season begins in Australia on March 15.

He added: "Last year I learned a lot from every single race and I always aim to be better at the next race than I was at the previous one, and that's why I think I will be better. 

"I'm more experienced and I also feel really good in the team with a good group and good engineers, so I'm looking forward to it."

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