News
Losing victory ‘very painful’ - Bottas
Drowning his sorrows – that’s what Valtteri Bottas says he feels like doing after his heart-breaking retirement from the lead in the closing stages of Sunday’s Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.
Losing victory ‘very painful’ - Bottas
The Finn had driven magnificently up until his exit on lap 49, using a long first stint to climb from third on the grid into the lead.
But after appearing to luck in when the Red Bulls collided and the safety car was called – enabling him to make a pit stop and retain first place ahead of long-time leader Sebastian Vettel – Bottas was then dealt the ultimate blow when having staved off Vettel’s attack at the re-start, he ran over debris with two laps to go.
A spectacular tyre blow out later and the Finn was watching trackside as team mate Lewis Hamilton inherited a fortunate victory.
“Maybe 10 pints of beer and we’ll be fine,” said the understandably gutted Mercedes driver afterwards.
“You always need to get through difficulties – it’s part of racing - but at the moment it’s very painful.”
Despite having victory so cruelly snatched from his grasp, Bottas was diplomatic when asked whether the marshals should have done a better job clearing the track surface of debris.
“This track is difficult,” he said. “Street circuits in general with a lot of crashes, [debris] is always going to be an issue.
“This time we were just so unlucky. I had no idea at any point I had run over debris – I didn’t see anything, I didn’t feel anything. Just very, very unlucky.”
Bottas’s retirement snapped an 18-race point-scoring streak for the Finn, and also sees him drop one place in the drivers’ standings to P4.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Video WORKDAY WINNING STRATEGIES: Dissecting Button’s bold and brilliant call to win the 2010 Australian GP
Feature EXCLUSIVE: ‘It was just pure relief’ – Lawson on his ‘rollercoaster’ 2024, replacing ‘great guy’ Ricciardo and his Red Bull goal
News Tsunoda feels he deserves Red Bull seat as RB racer reacts to Lawson’s return
News ‘I will fight for it to the very end’ – Leclerc insists Ferrari will keep pushing in their 2024 championship ambitions