Vettel questions Bottas' "unhuman" start
- Published on 09 Jul 2017 17:39
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Sebastian Vettel has doubts over the race start of Valtteri Bottas, claiming the Finn may have jumped the lights. Bottas shot off the grid at the start of the race, with the question immediately raised on whether or not he jumped the start.
The stewards looked into the incident but declared that Bottas's reaction time was 0.201 seconds, and no penalty was awarded. The Mercedes driver went untroubled for most of the race, hanging onto the win after coming under pressure from Vettel in the final few laps.
"I was a bit distracted [at the start because] from my point of view he jumped the start… I was sure that he did," commented Vettel. "It looked like it from inside the car, but it's not for me to judge at the end of the day."
When told that Bottas' reaction time was 0.201 seconds, he replied: "Hmm, I don't believe that. First of all, to clarify, I don't want to take anything away from Valtteri, he drove an excellent race, didn't make a mistake with a difficult car. When I said I don't believe it, it's because I don't believe it."
"Normally reaction times are around 0.2s for everyone, I don't think everyone was that much slower today, that's why I don't believe Valtteri was that much quicker. I had a strong belief at the time that he jumped the start and it turned out he didn't and I'm guessing there's reason to believe he didn't. I can't imagine his reaction time was 0.2s, that would be normal, in my point of view his reaction was unhuman, but he said earlier he's not human – he's Finnish!"
Fergal Walsh
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Replies (7)
Login to replyFreguz
Posts: 160
Stop crying
mbmwe36
Posts: 533
Agreed! I'm a huge Vettel fan, but this attitude is very unbecoming. He should be happy that he increased his lead over Hamilton, and if Bottas did jump the start, others will look into it.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It was a great start, a terrific start even, but thats all there is to it.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
He jumped the start, no doubt. But the stewards said it was okay, confusing rule
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
It was a fluke that could have gone either way and that's the point, if Bottas' gamble failed he would have indeed been a clear jump start. He got lucky. This was by no means a pure reactionary start, just inhuman to be that responsive.
talktohenry
Posts: 362
very impressive drive...............
denis1304
Posts: 284
"I was a bit distracted [at the start because] from my point of view he jumped the start… I was sure that he did,"
He needs therapy. He gets distracted and angered way to easy.