Valtteri Bottas had a disappointing race in China after spinning out under the safety car which cost him a front of the field challenge. The Finn dropped to twelfth and was left to pick his way through the mid pack.
He made preogress and ended up in sixth place, but it will not be the result he wanted after claiming his first podium for Mercedes last time out in Australia.
Team boss at Mercedes Toto Wolff was disappointed to see that happen, and says that Bottas needs to recover from the incident and come back stronger in Bahrain next week.
"Valtteri threw it away behind the safety car,” he told Sky Sports F1. “It had to be the best it was very slippery out there and this is where he lost it when the race was gone. He just needs to recover from that now. It's his second race into the season, there's 18 more left. We'll analyse it and forget it.
"You could see during the race that he had the pace. He was doing Lewis' lap times at various stages in the race, but once you're losing so many positions and you're not in the leading pack any more, you have to recover mentally and that's very difficult. He certainly has the character to recover from such a situation."
Fergal Walsh
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Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
Replies (2)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
I'm a bit worried for Bottas.. still yet to challenge Ham
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
We are only 2 races in, no need to worry. He has shown that he has decent pace, give him time and Im sure he'll be up there.