© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Valtteri Bottas says he doesn’t know what happened with his wheel during his pit stop. The issue led to him being unable to continue the race.
At the Monaco Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas was holding P2 before he went in for his first pit stop on lap 30. Unfortunately, the mechanics were unable to take the wheel off his car, which ultimately led to the Finn retiring from the race.
Mercedes later said that “the wheel nut machined onto the axle and couldn’t be removed”.
“I don’t know what happened in the pitstop to be honest, I don’t know yet if it was human error or a technical issue,” Bottas said after the incident..
“But in any case, we need to learn from it. It’s a big mistake by us and it should not happen.”
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The Finn believes he could have challenged Max Verstappen for the win, had the problem not occurred.
“I think otherwise we could have fought for the win. Red Bull and Max, they were really quick, so it would have been difficult.
“But at least we could have gotten a second place today with good points but we lost them.
“Max was quick and I think they managed to get the soft tyre to last a bit longer in the first stint. and once you get onto the hard tyre there’s not much happening.
“I don’t know, we’ll never know if we could have challenged or not,” concluded the Finn.
The win ultimately went to Max Verstappen, who is now leading the drivers’ championship, while Red Bull leads the constructors’ standings.
