Bottas: “It was worth the wait”

Valtteri Bottas took his first victory at the end of the Russian GP in Sochi. After gaining the advantage over the Ferrari de Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen at the start, the pilot Mercedes had to resist pressure from the four-time world champion in the final laps.

“This victory is a bit surreal but I hope it’s the first of many. It was clearly one of the best races of my career, commented Valtteri Bottas. The hardest part was overtaking the latecomers. With these single-seaters, you lose support as soon as you find yourself 2 or 3 seconds behind another car and it was difficult to overtake them without losing time. »

“I saw my performance deteriorate a little after locking up on a wheel in the last part of the test, but otherwise it went well”, added Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas breaks free

Valtteri Bottas marks an important milestone this season as he delivers his first success to Mercedes GP while his teammate Lewis Hamilton couldn't even finish on the podium.

“A few months after being surprised by Mercedes’ proposal, I finally got my first victory after having made more than 80 Grand Prix starts. I would like to thank the team very much, without whom nothing would have been possible.", added Valtteri Bottas.

“We had a difficult start to the season due to the return of Scuderia Ferrari to the front. They were still very close in this race. We managed to stay in front but we had to constantly stay on the attack with both cars. We didn't manage to achieve the double but we are still delighted with this result. »

“I always knew I could achieve good results but it’s nice to have confirmation of that. I had to wait 80 Grands Prix for it to happen, but it was worth the wait.", underlined the Mercedes driver.

Valtteri Bottas has returned to ten points behind Lewis Hamilton in the Championship but is still 23 points behind Sebastian Vettel. The Finn nevertheless allowed his team to regain the advantage over Ferrari for a point.

Discover the analysis of the Russian Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2112 of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version on all platforms, and from Thursday on newsstands.