Bottas disappointed: 'Lewis was lucky' with timing of puncture

Viewers of the 2020 British Grand Prix were starting to nosedive before Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) decides to wake everyone up unintentionally. A few laps from the finish, while the Finn was moving towards a second place behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton, he suffered a puncture to his left front tire.

“I felt unlucky, that’s for sure. The puncture happened at the worst place on the circuit”, specifies the bearer of the number 77. Indeed, the car had to almost cover a full lap on three wheels, almost 6 km in slow motion!

Following his pit stop, he could only hope to collect a small amount of points. Wasted effort, he ended up on the heels of Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari, 10th) and missed the top 10!

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, despite identical damage to the left front tire in the final loop, pocketed the 25 points for victory. Valtteri Bottas finds himself thrown back 30 points from the leader English.

“Lewis was lucky, he said. It wasn't really my day. We couldn't predict what was going to happen with the tires.

I did feel some vibrations at the wheel, but we were within acceptable limits. The tire temperatures were OK, but the vibrations became more and more intense.

So, I decided to really take my foot off, but the puncture came suddenly. It's very disappointing. »

Find in issue 2272 of AUTOhebdo, available Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands, the analysis of the British GP by our special correspondent.