(Motorsport-Total.com) – “It could have been the most difficult race of my Formula 1 career,” says Valtteri Bottas. At least the Turkey Huge Prix 620 ran from the perspective of the Mercedes driver extremely disappointing: Bottas was the title candidate as 14. he crossed the finish line after six spins, lapped by his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who also made the world title perfect.
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Valtteri Bottas at the Turkey Huge Prix: A total of six spins in the race! Zoom Salvage
No wonder that Bottas is served after this race. He says: “It was a disaster for me.” When ‘Ziggo Sport’ explicitly asked whether he would like to forget the day, Bottas simply said: “Yes, or the day someone bought a bat in Wuhan!”
His race started well from P9. “The first meters went really well, even great,” says Bottas. “From then on I was behind.”
He felt enormous pressure, after all he was Hamilton’s only remaining World Cup rival – and he had to beat him to win the title
“So it was clear to me: If I don’t make rapid progress and win the race or something, then there is no more chance. So I took it down,” explained Bottas. However, he then “wanted too much”, as he thinks.
Bottas was involved in an incident as early as turn 1. Renault man Esteban Ocon spun off the track in front of him. “I evaded and then turned myself,” reports Bottas.
But it did not stop. “Everything went wrong on this first lap,” said Bottas. “Shortly afterwards I had a collision on Turn 9.” The opponent in the accident: Ocon!
Bottas’ version of the events: “I turned in turn 1 and was last, but quickly caught up with the group in front of me. In turn 8 I had it Connection made and fling behind the other cars. “
” I had the chance of a maneuver in Turn 9, but then I braked because there was more water inside in Turn 9. The view was pretty humble too. ” Rapid touch came. “Of course I was greedy,” says Bottas, looking back, “maybe a little too much. I hit the Renault and that was it.”
It was the second turner within just a few kilometers, and an expensive one at that : “After touching it, the car wasn’t the same,” says Bottas.
“I had to fight to stay on the track. The steering wheel was crooked and part of the front wing was missing Only united states of america could get through, but it wasn’t nice. “
His Mercedes W 11 pulled “to hyperlinks” on the straights and was difficult to steer in the curves. But Bottas does not want to blame everything on the damage to the vehicle and says: “All the incidents that I had, it shouldn’t be like that. It was a bad race, a disaster.”
“Of course I have pushed to the maximum because I had nothing to lose today. I made mistakes and of course the damage made it quite difficult. “
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Congratulations from the loser in the title fight to the old and new world champion Zoom 240866 Salvage
Mercedes sports director Toto Wolff shows understanding: “I think he was troubled, modified into once troubled many other drivers: the tires were practically never in the correct temperature window.”
“Max turned three times, other god knows how often. Once you’re in this spiral, it’s incredibly difficult to free yourself psychologically. Today everything just came together for him. “
Sc Hon in Imola, Bottas managed to cross the finish line with a damaged car, but at least scored second. This time he went out take a look at. “That can happen if you really have to push,” says Bottas himself.
“On the other hand, there is no pressure for the upcoming races. Let’s see if that makes a difference. I’m happy me to these races, want to achieve good results and learn more. But most of all I’m looking forward to next year. “
If Hamilton then competes for Mercedes again, Bottas should compete against the now seven-time Formula 1 world champions have a hard time again. “Valtteri,” says Wolff, “has shown some really good performances this year, but towards the end he fell away.”
The team boss thinks the combination of Hamilton / Bottas makes sense. Wolff explains, “If Lewis has a bad day, Valtteri pulls it off, and vice versa. Valtteri had a really bad day today and Lewis wins the race. I think this combination works really well for the crew.”
And that Hamilton would shine in the race, that came as no surprise even for Bottas. “I knew,” he says, “that Lewis wanted to win the title in style. He had a good race, a really good race without mistakes. It was a good race for him to win the title.”
He made “so many mistakes”. “I wasted who knows how many minutes with my turntables and everything.” After all: Bottas continues to occupy second place in the Formula 1 driver standings ahead of Red Bull man Max Verstappen.
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