Bottas had his eye on the rearview mirrors during his mistake at the end of the race in Miami

Since his departure from Mercedes and his arrival at Alfa Romeo in 2022, Valtteri Bottas has been delivering very good performances at the start of the season. Finishing in 6th place at the opening race in Bahrain and 5th place at Imola, the Finnish driver seems to be extracting the full potential from a well-built car.

In Miami, Bottas was 6th before the safety car intervention on lap 41, and then 5th at the restart when George Russell pitted. But with only 7 laps to go, an error leading to contact with the wall in the final corner caused him to lose 2 positions to the Mercedes cars. He finishes 7th in the first Grand Prix at the Hard Rock Stadium, a solid performance but one that could have been even more impressive without this mistake.

A mistake that the former Mercedes driver simply explains by what was happening behind him.

« Everything was going really well, I was hoping for this kind of race, until the safety car came out. But then George had the opportunity to pit for fresh medium tires and he was closing in really quickly. While he was overtaking Lewis, I was following them in the rearview mirrors, because they were getting closer and I thought maybe I would have to close the door or something like that, and I just braked a fraction too late. I missed the apex by a tiny bit, then I went onto the dirty part of the track and, even though I was going slowly, I understeered into the wall. Fortunately, nothing broke or punctured a tire.

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Despite this mistake, Bottas emphasizes that it is still a great performance. It’s a shame not to have had P5, but nevertheless, P7 is good.