Bottas: “An amateur mistake”

Valtteri Bottas lost his hopes of a podium at the Chinese GP by making a mistake after being trapped by the wet Shanghai track. The pilot Mercedes was only able to save a 6th place behind the Red Bull de Max Verstappen et Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari by Kimi Räikkönen.

The Mercedes driver was in 5th place on the 6th lap when he lost control of his W08 and spun while the safety car was on track following Antonio Giovinazzi's accident.

“It’s very disappointing. I apologize for this amateurish mistake. I know it won't help, but I will do better in the next races, promised Valtteri Bottas to his team. I had a problem during my stop and I lost a few places. It wasn't dramatic because there were still quite a few laps left. My mechanics had trouble lifting the rear of the car, but that was a small fault compared to mine. My mistake cost me a lot of points. »

Toto wolff in support

Toto Wolff, the executive chairman of Mercedes Motorsport, has excused Valtteri Bottas due to the difficult conditions encountered at the start of the race.

“It was very slippery and he lost control. His race was then over. But this is only the second event of the season and there are still 18 to go, said Toto Wolff. II could see during the race that he was on pace. He achieved Lewis' times at certain times, but it's very complicated once you've lost several places and you're no longer in the leading group. »

Valtteri Bottas is now in 4th place in the Championship, 2 points behind Max Verstappen and 20 units from the leaders Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Discover the analysis of the Chinese Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2109 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.