Bottas rues “Incidental and short” race after after several incidents,
Valtteri Bottas left his “concerted and short” Japanese GP after several crashes at the start.
The Alfa Romeo driver started from 16th and Esteban Ocon was caught in the first corner, causing damage to the front wing and a puncture. It was a frantic return to the pits as the mechanics worked frantically to get him back on track before he was overtaken by the safety car.
The Finn then battled Logan Sargeant at the back of the field when the Williams driver made a mistake at the hairpin and collided with the Alfa Romeo – spitting him into the outside barrier. Alfa Romeo finally decided to retire the car – the second race in a row Bottas posted a DNF in a bad season for the ten-time Grand Prix winner. Bottas:
The car was undriveable “It was quite an eventful short race for me. I had a great start from the line, I was between two cars going into Turn 1 and the car on the right started pushing to the left,” Bottas told F1 TV. “Then finally there was no room, there was a crash and I had a hole.”
“With Sergeant, I just tried to move from the outside, but then he locked himself in and finally took me out.” The contact caused significant damage to Bottas’ car and he declared it was “undriveable” over the team radio, I think there must have been a fault in the suspension, we also had a hole in the side,” he explained.
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