SILLY MISTAKE
With only four days of testing
and two race weekends under his
belt and up against a formidable
team mate in Hamilton, he is still
getting up to speed.
Bottas qualified and finished
third on his Mercedes debut a
fortnight ago in Australia and
qualified third again in China.
Yet Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel
split him and pole-sitter Hamilton on
both occasions.
His team boss Toto Wolff
advised Bottas to move on from his
spin.
“It happens to the best,” said
Wolff, who is close to Bottas and
was a part of his management team.
“Analyse it and forget it.”
To add to his spin, Bottas lost
more time in the pits when the rear
of his car had to be lifted physically
during a pitstop due to a problem
with the jack.
At one point in the race, Ross,
who worked as Rosberg’s race
engineer, even called him ‘Nico’ on
the team radio.
“We still have potential for P4
here, Nico...Valtteri...so just keep
pushing,” Ross said.
“To be honest, I didn’t even
notice while driving. It was always
going to happen at some point,”
Bottas said. “I’m surprised I haven’t
stopped in the Williams box yet,” he
added with a smile.