Valtteri Bottas

Bottas wins Sao Paulo GP Sprint race as Hamilton finishes 5th after starting from the back of the grid

Kevin Peterson08 mins

Valtteri Bottas denied Max Verstappen victory in the Sprint Qualifying race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace on Saturday as Lewis Hamilton drove from twentieth on the grid to finish an amazing fifth. Bottas got the jump on Verstappen at the start and was able to get ahead of the Red Bull Racing driver heading into turn one, whilst behind him Carlos Sainz Jr. moved from fifth on the grid to run third, getting ahead of both Pierre Gasly and Sergio Pérez. Sainz then moved ahead of Verstappen at turn four, with the Dutchman running wide as a result, although the positions switched back a few laps later at turn one once he was able to use the drag reduction system down the main straight. Hamilton, who had started at the back after being disqualified from Qualifying for a DRS infringement, made up four places on the opening lap and then made light work of the midfield runners to enter the top ten, although once there he was made to work harder, particularly against the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. Bottas, running on the soft tyres, was able to keep enough life in them until the chequered flag to deny Verstappen the win, even when the Red Bull driver got close enough to open his drag reduction system on his rear wing. Bottas took the chequered flag at the end of the twenty-four laps 1.170 seconds clear to take the three points. Bottas and Verstappen ended well clear of the battle for third, with Sainz able to keep Pérez behind him all the way to the chequered flag. Pérez had a few attempts at passing the Scuderia Ferrari driver but to no avail, so the final point on offer went the way of the Spaniard. Lando Norris was a man on a mission early on as he rose to fifth, but he was Hamilton’s final victim heading into turn one on the final lap, with the McLaren F1 Team racer being forced to settle for sixth. Hamilton’s fifth place will turn into a tenth place start for Sunday’s race thanks to his grid penalty for an unscheduled change of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) ahead of the weekend. Charles Leclerc ended seventh in the second Ferrari ahead of Gasly, with the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver struggling at the start and losing out massively to fall to seventh. Once Hamilton was passed him, he fell back further from those ahead of him and ended down in eighth, while the top ten was completed by Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s Vettel. Ricciardo missed out on the top ten after a poor start, with the second McLaren driver ending eleventh, just ahead of the second Alpine of Fernando Alonso, who also failed to get a good getaway off the line in Brazil. Antonio Giovinazzi survived an incident with Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team-mate Kimi Räikkönen at turn one that spun around the Finn to finish thirteenth, with the Italian ending ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. Nicholas Latifi beat Williams Racing team-mate George Russell to sixteenth, while Räikkönen ended eighteenth after his spin, with the incident involving Giovinazzi not deemed serious enough to be investigated. The field was rounded out by Uralkali Haas F1 Team duo Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin. Bottas will start Sunday’s main race in São Paulo ahead of Verstappen, while Hamilton will have all the confidence in the world to move forward from tenth on the grid having made up fifteen places in just twenty-four laps on Saturday. After all, there are seventy-one laps to come on Sunday! 2021 F1 SAO PAULO GRAND PRIX – SPRINT QUALIFYING RESULTS POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 24 Laps 2 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing + 1.170s 3 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 18.723s 4 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing + 19.787s 5 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team + 20.872s 6 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team + 22.558s 7 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 25.056s 8 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda + 34.158s 9 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team + 34.632s 10 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 34.867s 11 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team + 35.869s 12 Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team + 36.578s 13 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 41.880s 14 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 44.037s 15 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda + 46.150s 16 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing + 46.760s 17 George Russell GBR Williams Racing + 47.739s 18 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 50.014s 19 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 61.680s 20 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 67.474s After 

Toto Wolf annoyed with Bottas for letting Verstappen through on Turn 1

Kevin Peterson03 mins

Toto Wolff is unhappy with how poleman Valtteri Bottas failed to prevent Max Verstappen from overhauling both Mercedes drivers at the start of the Mexican GP. Ahead of Sunday’s race, Hamilton vowed to work with Bottas to fend off any attacks from the Red Bull camp. But as the front-runners barreled down to the first corner, Bottas remained alongside his teammate in the middle of the track rather than move towards to the left towards the racing line to block Verstappen’s charging Red Bull. And to add insult to injury, the Finn was then tagged and spun around by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, a setback from which Bottas could not recover. “That should not happen,” Wolff told Sky. “I think we had two cars in front and seemed to open up the scene for Max to come around the outside.” “And even the spin afterwards, and the complete loss of points with Valtteri’s car when there could have been a third or fourth place is annoying, to say the least.” Bottas eventually secured the fastest race lap, depriving Verstappen of an extra point, but Wolff appeared indifferent to the feat. “I mean, that doesn’t really console me at that stage.” Looking back on the race, the Austrian conceded that Mercedes would have likely been hard-pressed to prevail against Red Bull in Mexico if the start had gone according to plan “You have to congratulate Red Bull because the pace was just on another level,” Wolff said. “I don’t think we could have won the race even if he would have stayed ahead in the first corner, because they could have driven circles around us around the pit stops. “In the end, I think for Lewis’s championship it was damage limitation. And for the constructors’, Valtteri spinning out at turn one was very painful.”

Bottas takes pole as Mercedes lock out the front row in the Mexican GP qualifying(full results)

Kevin Peterson06 mins

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position for the Mexican GP, leading a 1-2 for the Brackley team as Lewis Hamilton claimed second place. In what was a surprising turn of events, Mercedes proved untouchable in the final part of qualifying as Bottas set a 1:15.875 on his first run in Q3. This was over a tenth quicker than what Hamilton managed, but it was Red Bull who shocked as they fell short in the crunch part of qualifying. Having looked the favourites throughout the weekend, Verstappen was left scratching his head after falling 0.350 shy of what Bottas managed. A reasonably scruffy first flying lap put him on the back foot, while his second run was ruined when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda went off through the esses on the final runs. This distracted Sergio Perez, with the two cars being off the track and distracting Verstappen as he arrived at the scene. Perez was left in fourth, with neither Red Bull improving on their second runs as a result of the incident. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished in fifth, just over a tenth shy of Perez and possibly highlighting just how far short Red Bull fell in the final part of qualifying. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished sixth, having survived a scare in the first part of qualifying when he appeared to suffer a power unit issue leaving the pits. He managed to get the car fired back up to full power, going on to make it into Q3. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was seventh, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and Tsunoda in ninth. The Japanese driver will start on the Soft compound, having been the only driver in the top ten in Q2 to use the red marked tyres to get through the second part of qualifying. Rounding out the top ten was McLaren’s Lando Norris, although he will start from the back of the grid as a result of an engine change grid penalty. 2021 F1 MEXICAN GP – QUALIFYING RESULTS POS. DRIVER NAT. TEAM Q1 Q2 Q3 1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m16.727s 1m16.864s 1m15.875s 2 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m17.207s 1m16.474s 1m16.020s 3 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m16.788s 1m16.483s 1m16.225s 4 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m17.003s 1m17.055s 1m16.342s 5 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m16.908s 1m16.955s 1m16.456s 6 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m17.517s 1m17.248s 1m16.761s 7 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m17.719s 1m17.092s 1m16.763s 8 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m16.748s 1m17.034s 1m16.837s 9 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m17.330s 1m16.701s 1m17.158s 10 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m17.569s 1m17.473s 1m36.830s 11 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m17.502s 1m17.746s   12 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m17.606s 1m17.958s   13 George Russell GBR Williams Racing 1m17.958s 1m18.172s   14 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m17.897s 1m18.290s   15 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m18.126s 1m18.405s   16 Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team 1m18.452s     17 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m18.756s     18 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m18.858s     19 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m19.303s     20 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m20.873s     After being absent from the 2020 season calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Formula 1 returns to racing in Mexico this weekend.

Mexican GP FP1: Bottas tops Mercedes 1-2 as Hamilton is under investigation for track limits breach

Kevin Peterson05 mins

Valtteri Bottas kicked off the Mexican Grand Prix weekend by setting the fastest time in opening practice, ahead of Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton. Dusty conditions and a green track made for challenging, low grip conditions for the drivers, but Bottas appeared unfazed as he lit up the timesheets with a 1m18.341s to finish 0.076s clear of Hamilton. Hamilton, who heads into the weekend trialing Max Verstappen in the world championship by 12 points, has been summoned to see the stewards in Mexico City between practice sessions for a track limits incident. The seven-time world champion ran wide at Turn 1 before rejoining at Turn 3 in a moment early on during the first practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Hamilton reported over team radio that he “couldn’t slow down there” but he will be investigated after FP1 for failing to follow race director Michael Masi’s notes which state that drivers must return to the track by going around the left hand side of the Turn 3 bollard, which Hamilton did not do. However, it is unlikely Hamilton will be given anything more than a reprimand for the transgression. Hamilton’s title rival Verstappen was just 0.123s off the pace as he took third, ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, who finished 0.269s down. Home hero Perez recovered from an early setback to his weekend when he missed track running after hitting the Turn 16 barriers following a spin early in the session. He was able to return to the action for the final 20 minutes. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was fifth-fastest and the final driver to get within a second of Bottas’ benchmark time. Behind Gasly was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc, who like Perez suffered rear wing damage with an off at Turn 16. Esteban Ocon ensured both Alpine cars finished inside the top 10, which was completed by Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin. During the session it was confirmed that both Yuki Tsunoda (11th) and Lance Stroll (13th) will start this weekend’s race from the back of the grid after taking new power unit elements. 2021 F1 MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (1) POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m18.341s 2 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 1m18.417s 3 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m18.464s 4 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing 1m18.610s 5 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m18.985s 6 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m19.463s 7 Fernando Alonso CHI Alpine F1 Team 1m19.656s 8 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 1m19.667s 9 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team 1m19.795s 10 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m19.858s 11 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda 1m20.011s 12 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m20.026s 13 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team 1m20.030s 14 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team 1m20.273s 15 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team 1m20.301s 16 Antonio Giovinazzi GBR Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m20.344s 17 George Russell ISR Williams Racing 1m20.517s 18 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing 1m21.580s 19 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m22.144s 20 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team 1m22.819s

Bottas wins wet Turkish GP as Verstappen takes championship lead

Kevin Peterson06 mins

Valtteri Bottas won the Turkish Grand Prix, ending a year-long winless drought after leading most of the race from pole position. Max Verstappen finished second to take a six point lead in the championship, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who finished fifth following a late pit stop.Rainfall earlier in the morning soaked the course with water, and light showers persisted throughout the day. All twenty cars started the race on the intermediate tyres. To their credit, it was a mostly clean opening lap – though not entirely without incident. Pierre Gasly picked up a five second time penalty for avoidable contact with Fernando Alonso at the first corner. Alonso, who dropped to the back of the field after a spin, then picked up a five second penalty of his own when he hit Mick Schumacher and spun the Haas driver out. All of the leaders were content to run their single set of intermediates, potentially as long as to the end of the race. That changed on lap 37, when Verstappen made a stop to switch to a new set of intermediates. Bottas pitted from the lead on the next lap. Aston Martin even felt confident enough to send Sebastian Vettel out on a set of medium compound slick tyres, but the track was still far too wet for the gamble to pay off at all. Charles Leclerc took the lead after Bottas’ pit stop. Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Esteban Ocon were the last of the front runners running on their first set of tyres. At the front, Leclerc began to haemorrhage time to Bottas on his worn set of intermediates, setting Bottas up for a chance to re-take the lead with a lunge up the inside of turn one on lap 47. Leclerc finally pitted at the end of the lap, and much to the seven-time world champion’s reluctance, Hamilton made his stop on lap 51. Hamilton continued to protest the decision to pit with eight laps to go. He dropped into fifth place behind Leclerc, with Gasly gaining on him in sixth. Hamilton could not make any forward progress as he suffered with graining in his new set of intermediates. Bottas, at the front, stretched his lead out to over ten seconds – and after spinning off five times in last year’s Turkish Grand Prix, he drove to a commanding first win of the 2021 season by 14.5 seconds; Verstappen finished second to take the championship lead, and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez finished in third, for his first podium since the French Grand Prix. Leclerc held on to fourth, ahead of Hamilton in fifth, Gasly sixth, and Lando Norris in seventh. Carlos Sainz Jnr was voted Driver of the Day are completing his drive from 19th on the grid after a pre-event power unit change, up into eighth place. Lance Stroll finished ninth and Esteban Ocon, the only driver to run the full distance without stopping, held off Antonio Giovinazzi for the final point in tenth. 2021 F1 TURKISH GRAND PRIX – RESULTS POS DRIVER NAT. TEAM TIME 1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 58 Laps 2 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing + 14.584s 3 Sergio Perez MEX Red Bull Racing + 33.471s 4 Charles Leclerc MON Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 37.471s 5 Lewis Hamilton GBR Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team + 41.812s 6 Pierre Gasly FRA Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda + 44.292s 7 Lando Norris GBR McLaren F1 Team + 47.213s 8 Carlos Sainz ESP Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow + 51.526s 9 Lance Stroll CAN Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 82.018s 10 Esteban Ocon FRA Alpine F1 Team + 1 Lap 11 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 1 Lap  12 Kimi Raikkonen FIN Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen + 1 Lap 13 Daniel Ricciardo AUS McLaren F1 Team + 1 Lap 14 Yuki Tsunoda JPN Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda + 1 Lap 15 George Russell GBR Williams Racing + 1 Lap 16 Fernando Alonso ESP Alpine F1 Team + 1 Lap 17 Nicholas Latifi CAN Williams Racing + 1 Lap 18 Sebastian Vettel GER Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team + 1 Lap 19 Mick Schumacher GER Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 2 Laps 20 Nikita Mazepin RUS Uralkali Haas F1 Team + 2 Laps