© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Here is the transcript of the Post 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying track interviews and press conference featuring Valtteri Bottas.
TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Felipe Massa)
Q: Valtteri, straight away just pulling next to Max. I was looking and I was a little scared that the tyres would survive until the end and we would have some battle at the end, but actually you had traction. So what do you think about the race. Was the start the main thing?
Valtteri BOTTAS: Exactly, today the start was the key thing for me, to have a good start. We gambled a little bit with the Soft tyre. We knew that it would be a benefit for the start and it worked and then it was all about trying to survive to the end. It was tricky at the end but Max still struggled to follow in some of the corners, so I’m glad it worked out perfectly.
Q: Congratulations, you have no idea how the people… the fans are really enjoying the moment you know, every single moment, all the overtaking but especially the start. It’s nice to have them here.
VB: Yeah, thank you for the support. It’s amazing here, so thank you.
PRESS CONFEERENCE
Q: Well done Valtteri, you won the F1 Sprint at Monza and you’ve won it here as well. You are king of the Sprint. It was a brilliantly judge race by you, just how pleased are you?
VB: It was a good one, you know. Everything went as planned and we opted to start with the Soft tyre because we though the best chance to get the lead was the race start and even with a bit of the risk that the end of the race could be tricky but it worked perfectly. It wasn’t easy at the end, the tyres started to be pretty finished but I just tried to avoid mistakes and tried to keep the focus and today was a good day. And I am also pleased that Lewis could get up to fifth place so that gives him plenty of opportunities for tomorrow and that means we can still, even with the issues of this weekend, have a great result tomorrow.
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Q: Tell us about the decision to run the Softs as opposed to the Mediums? How much of a gamble was it really?
VB: It is a bit. As I just explained it gives an advantage for the start and it gives a disadvantage to the end of the race comparted to the Medium. It’s easy to say afterward but it was the right choice for me.
Q: And how much pressure was Max applying throughout the race?
VB: He was sometimes just about within a second and I knew that it’s only going to get more tricky towards the end because the Soft tyre degrades more but, yeah, I think we had a good pace and the following is not easy here, so he couldn’t ever have an opportunity to overtake.
Q: And looking ahead to tomorrow’s 71-lap race, what’s the game plan?
VB: I can’t tell you! I mean, yeah, of course, starting from the pole, hoping to keep the lead and go from there but now it’s pretty open in terms of strategy for every team. Everyone can start with whatever tyre they like. So, we’re going to try to make the best plan we can.
Q: And finally from me Max, can we get your reaction to the reprimand and fine that you received from the stewards this morning.
Max VERSTAPPEN: It’s quite a big fine, so I hope they have a nice dinner and a lot of wine. I hope good expensive wine, that would be nice. They can invite me for dinner as well. I’ll pay for that dinner too.
VB: Do you have to pay for it, or the team?
MV: I do have to pay. So that’s a little bit less FIFA points for me on my laptop.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Valtteri, just wondered how much tyre management were you having to do, especially in the later stages of the race?
VB: I was really fully focusing on trying to do the fastest stint I can, and that means management with the soft tyre so especially in the beginning, I was obviously trying to create a gap but not to kill the tyres immediately and that middle part of that race really, just tried to optimise the pace and that includes quite a bit of management with the soft tyre, especially in certain parts of the track. And towards the end, yeah, I was trying to squeeze out every single bit I had left of the tyres.
Q: (Alex Kalinauckas – Autosport) Valtteri, we saw Mercedes spend a lot of time running the soft tyres in FP2 and also later on in FP1 yesterday. Was that all about making a plan for today’s race, in the sprint or has it got implications of what you’re going to do tomorrow in the race as well?
VB: I think actually used Softs because we thought the Medium would be better for the sprint but then in FP1 the Soft behaved a bit better than we expected, so then we started to have a look to see if there was an opportunity to use the Soft, even though it was not a new Soft, that means we have plenty of tyres for tomorrow. Let’s see what we come up with, but… that’s all.
Source: FIA.com
