© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Valtteri Bottas finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in P3 and lost his championship lead to his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
So it’s not surprising that the Finn is not happy with today’s result. Add to that the fact that he almost had a jump start and it’s obvious Bottas didn’t have a particularly good race.
“It was a pretty bad race, to be honest for me,” said Bottas after the race.
“Starting second, the goal was to win the race – but I lost a lot at the start. I reacted to a light in my dashboard. It went off and I don’t know what it was.
“But it changed my dash, and I reacted to that instead of the start lights, so I got the anti-stall in. I had to do the start again and lost a lot of time.
“I lost [the race] there. No problem but obviously I lost many places, and made the race difficult and I was fighting right to the very end.
The team tried to do everything to help Bottas regain what he lost at the start, so he was one of the first drivers to stop for slick tyres and he also made an extra stop on lap 50 to have a chance to catch Max Verstappen on fresh rubber.
“It was worth the gamble, really. It gave me that difference in the tyre life, but it didn’t quite pay off today. [I was] fighting to the end, it was pretty close with Max, but still good points.”
F1 now moves to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix and the Finn hopes for a good result there.
“I think the car will hopefully be good there. I’m looking forward to going to Silverstone.
“But again, plenty to learn from this weekend to be stronger at Silverstone,” concluded Bottas.
