© Wolfgang Wilhelm for Daimler AG
Valtteri Bottas says he had a “surreal” feeling that “someone else” was driving his car at the season-opening race in Melbourne.
Bottas was asked to name the highlight of his 2019 season and, unsurprisingly, he picked his tremendous race win at the Australian Grand Prix.
“It’s still Melbourne,” Bottas said.
“The race I had. It is weird, when I think about it, it feels like it was someone else. It was surreal. It just felt too easy.
“It’s a funny feeling, so that was definitely my best race ever, best Sunday ever.
“And I wasn’t on the pole, so I had a good start from second place and I got the lead there.”
However the Finn wasn’t able to sustain the same level of performance for the whole season and ultimately lost the drivers’ championship to Lewis Hamilton. But Bottas isn’t too disappointed and is determined to learn from the experience.
“The goal is always to try and go further ahead with your performance, and from 2017 that’s why 2018 felt such a disappointing season, because I almost felt like it was a step backwards.
“Now it’s on the right way, I can see a little bit the improvements and gains I’ve been able to make as a driver and the amount I’ve been able to learn, within this year and from last year.
“It is a very nice feeling to see that actually the hard work is at some point paying off.
“When I look at the season, of course, when Lewis secured the title, the initial feeling was disappointment, because I knew it’s game over again, and I kind of failed in my goal.
“But very quickly, the race [win] helped as well, to keep the good feeling.
“I look at this season in a very positive way, because of all the learning I’ve been able to do,” concluded the Finn.
Source: autosport.com
