At the Russian Grand Prix Max Verstappen easily overtook Valtteri Bottas, who didn’t put up much of a fight. The Finn explains what happened.
Valtteri Bottas had a tough time at the Russian Grand Prix. He started the race from P17 due to an engine swap, and then struggled throughout most of the race.
The Finn admits his race was saved by the rain that came in its closing stages.
“It was much more difficult to progress today than I thought,” said Bottas.
“Always when I got close in the last sector or the middle sector I had big understeer. For some cars, it just seemed easier for some reason.
“It was really, really tricky and having the rain saved us that we could get some points.”
Another important moment happened when Max Verstappen, who started the race from last place also due to an engine swap, overtook Bottas without any problems.
“I didn’t really see him coming. I need to have a look at what more I could have done but he was progressing much better than us through the field.
“I think he passed me pretty easily. He could then overtake the cars ahead of me and I had no chance.”
In the final laps of the race it started raining, and Bottas was one of the first people to switch to intermediate tyres. This helped him finish the race in P5. The Finn says he could have finished even higher had he pitted earlier.
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“That was the key, when to stop. To be honest, I asked to stop one lap earlier but the team wasn’t ready and I had to go around one more time. With that, I could have been on the podium.
“I was still one of the first ones to stop which was good, it was the right call,” concluded Bottas.
Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin later explained what led to Bottas’ early struggles in the race.
“Principally that [with] the cooler conditions, the front tyres were having a tough time,” the Briton said.
“We were understeering a bit so whereas on Friday, the rears were really the axle that was suffering the most, here it was the front.
“When you can’t follow in those last four corners then you can’t get close enough to overtake.
“It was really down to car balance but I think the cooler conditions were actually making it more difficult rather than easier.”
Shovlin also agrees the rain saved Valtteri’s race.
“Had we not had that rain at the end, it could have been a fairly disappointing finish. We could have had Lewis second and Valtteri out of the points.
“But really, it was just that call in qualifying and whilst it was difficult and we did go onto dry tyres, we didn’t go quite early enough to get the two laps that you seem to need,” concluded Shovlin.