Bahrain Grand Prix – Bottas: « It’s very encouraging »
The Finn can be proud of his first race with his new team by securing a Top10 finish in Bahrain.
On Saturday, Valtteri Bottas delivered an impressive performance in qualifying, placing his Alfa Romeo in 6th position, right behind his former teammate at Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton.
Despite this great position on the grid, the Finn will have a lot of difficulty at the start. Indeed, the man with ten victories loses 8 positions and finds himself in a distant 14th position.
An error not to be repeated in the future in the face of such a tight midfield where even the smallest point could mean tens of millions of euros at the end of the season.
Fortunately for the Swiss team, Kimi Räikkönen’s replacement is going to make a fantastic comeback and finish in 6th position. This result is also made possible by the retirement of both Red Bulls and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.
Thanks to a good pace and a good strategy, we then managed to climb back into the points. It’s very encouraging to see the team start the season in such a way by placing both cars in the points.
While 2021 had been a very challenging season for Frederic Vasseur’s team, finishing only 9th in the constructor’s championship with a mere 13 points, this new technical revolution seems to have allowed Alfa Romeo to break into the upper midfield.
Alfa Romeo now occupies the 4th position in the ranking thanks to Valtteri Bottas’ 6th place as well as rookie Guanyu Zhou’s 10th position.
