Bottas, a 14th place and a Grand Prix to forget
Valtteri Bottas had a nightmarish race in Turkey, spinning six times, a collision with Esteban Ocon, and ultimately finishing a lap down on his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The Finnish driver had shown his intentions at the beginning of the year, indicating that we could expect to see a Valtteri Bottas 2.0 on the track. The objective this season was to beat his teammate and put an end to the second driver role that has stuck with him since his arrival.
To give himself the best chances, the native of Nastola even sought advice from the only driver today to have beaten Lewis Hamilton, the German world champion Nico Rosberg. But his championship hopes were quickly jeopardized against an unyielding Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of his Mercedes. Resigned, his final challenge was ultimately to delay his British teammate’s title for as long as possible.
At the start of this Istanbul weekend, the situation was clear: Valtteri Bottas needed to score seven more points than his teammate. In the qualifications, the Finn was slower than Lewis Hamilton, who also struggled on this Istanbul Park circuit. Starting 9th on the grid, he needed to have a perfect Grand Prix to hope to delay a title promised to Lewis Hamilton, who started 6th.
All his hopes, however, vanished in the first round of this Turkish race. From the first corner, he found himself unintentionally involved in the collision between the Renaults, causing a mistake with Esteban Ocon.
The two drivers found themselves facing the wrong way again at turn 9, due to the Finn’s disastrous braking. The rest of the race was nothing but an interminable ordeal for the driver of the Mercedes with number 77. His collision with the Renault driver is believed to have damaged the steering of his car, making it even more difficult to drive in the rain. After four additional spins, Lewis Hamilton delivered the final blow by putting him a lap behind as he raced towards his 7th world title.
Disillusioned, Valtteri Bottas, 14th in the standings and one lap down from the leader, was simply waiting for the ordeal to end, and a radio exchange perfectly illustrates this:
Bottas’ engineer: «4 laps to go»
Valtteri Bottas: «I was hoping there were fewer left! »
With hopes for titles dashed, Valtteri Bottas insisted on congratulating Lewis Hamilton, champion for the 4th consecutive year.
Congratulations @LewisHamilton for your 7th @F1 title ????????#VB77 #LH44 #F1 #TurkishGP @MercedesAMGF1 @F1 pic.twitter.com/zSk5jpGcJT
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) November 15, 2020
