‘Chill’ snakes and a journey of 420km – Bottas’ epic bike ride from Malaysia to Singapore

While most of the Formula 1 paddock travelled directly from Malaysia to Singapore after last weekend's race in Sepang, Valtteri Bottas chose a very different route.

Rather than taking the short hop from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore by plane for the next round of the season at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Cadillac's Bottas opted to cover the distance by bicycle over several days.

The Finn made it safely to Singapore following his epic trip and, unsurprisingly, his adventure was one of the main talking points during Thursday's media day in the paddock.

"I'm really glad I did it because I saw pretty much the whole of Malaysia in a few days and the wild side of it, like the jungles, the plantations, bit of riding at night as well," he told the media in Singapore.

"Happy to be here safe and [it] all went as expected."

Bottas' Malaysian adventure

Bottas' adventure on two wheels began just hours after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia concluded, a race in which he spun out and failed to finish. That evening, the Finn travelled 56.60km from Kuala Lumpur to Port Dickson, a journey that took him just over two hours.

On Monday, he spent almost six hours in the saddle, covering a mammoth 161.91km via Malacca City before reaching Muar. Bottas then continued south on Tuesday, spending more than five hours on the road while covering another 161km, before heading along the coast on natural paths and the gravelled, less common roads of the country.

Eventually the 10-time race winner made it from the coast to Batu Pahat, and then through Senggarang, a town whose name is linked to a local crocodile legend.

His route continued further away from the coast, riding through Kelapa Sawit before reaching his final destination of the day, Kulai.

On Wednesday, he put in a 'slightly' shorter leg and, after a total journey of 419.67km, arrived in Singapore.

While the ride was a considerable undertaking, Bottas said it would not affect his preparations for the weekend.

"Everything was really well planned," he reassured people on Thursday. "The distances for each day [were] planned so that I can recover for the weekend.

"So yesterday ended up being quite a short day, almost like a recovery day. Today is an easy day and it's those distances, not really unusual for me. I do long rides every now and then and I know how I can recover.

"And surely now I'm used to the heat, I was sweating a lot and I think day-by-day you start to feel better in the heat."

A familiar pursuit away from F1

Bottas is no stranger to life on two wheels. Earlier this year he secured a place at the Gravel World Championships by finishing fifth in his age group at a qualifying event in the Czech Republic. However, the championship takes place this weekend, ruling out his participation as he competes in the Singapore Grand Prix.

He doesn't have any more odysseys planned for the near future, though – but never say never.

"Sometimes you just have to jump into things," he said. "You have to just go for it and this is what I did. It sounded a little bit like a crazy idea but actually ended up being absolutely fine."

And there was one big bonus to top it all, he concluded.

"I overcame some of my little fears, I think, because I don't really like snakes but I saw a couple and they were really chill!"