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Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas has claimed last weekend's Italian Grand Prix was 'an opportunity missed' for the team.
Bottas could only manage fifth place throughout the race after a poor start saw him drop down the order from second on the grid, which then saw the Finnish driver suffer from overheating issues on his engine throughout the race.
Despite leading the for half of the race, teammate Lewis Hamilton could only manage seventh after being given a penalty for entering the pitlane when it had been closed, sending him to the back of the grid as a result.
Bottas felt the weekend was a missed opportunity not only for himself but for the whole team, claiming the opportunity was there to finish first and second.
“I think as a team, it was definitely an opportunity missed,” Bottas told Autosport
“We started 1-2, we should have been 1-2 with the car we have, but it was a crazy race.
“I got unlucky in terms of some people stopping before the safety car and red flag, so they got me. But some people got even more unlucky than me. So it could have been a much worse day.
“If I were now in the championship lead before the weekend, I would be more satisfied with this because I would be gaining to the main competitors.
“But obviously I'm chasing and I need to make bigger gains if I still want to get the title hopes there. I feel it was an opportunity missed. It could have been better. But we move on.”
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
Replies (3)
Login to replyJuJuHound
Posts: 352
Lewis was overheating to when he was driving from the back but every lap you could see he was driving on different line to cool the car.
Valterri had same problems but he was strugglin all the time, however we need to adit he was facing faster drivers than Lewis. But after all his race was poor, to poor to get the chance and get some points to close the gap to Lewis. Not a champ material this year, let's try another year...
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
Yeah - you are right - assuming Bottas wins the rest of this years races (zero chance) and Hamilton finishes second or third (zero chance) then it's doable. But it isn't. It will take a DNF to bring him back into view and then a series of wins to Hamilton second places - it's possible ....
MarkZ
Posts: 31
Can we just be happy someone else finally won a race