MY MISSION
A
lthough Valtteri Bottas suffered a
DNF in the Spanish Grand Prix,
the Finn played an important role
in ensuring that his Mercedes teammate
Lewis Hamilton won the race.
Bottas kept Sebastian Vettel behind
him for several laps until the Ferrari driver
executed a daring overtake, to get past
the Finn, but the German had lost valuable
time in the duel between the two and in
the end fell short of seriously challenging
Hamilton.
Bottas explained, “I was doing all I
could to keep Sebastian behind and make
him lose time, that’s how it goes. That was
my job and mission at that point. But the
pace difference was too big and eventually
he got past.”
“But I definitely helped the team. I
hope it made a bit of a difference and at
least we managed as a team to grow the
small points difference to Ferrari which is
good. But it could have been a lot bigger
with both of us finishing strong.”
Bottas was involved in a first lap
melee, which resulted in contact and
the immediate retirement of Ferrari’s
Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max
Verstappen. Although the Mercedes
continued, Bottas was forced to park the
car with engine problems on lap 38.
“The start was good,” recalled Bottas.
“The getaway was nice and I was catching
up pretty quickly on the guys in front, but
this time there was nowhere to go really. I
was looking first to go left but there wasn’t
quite enough space.