“He really ruined my day” – Valtteri Bottas stopped short of fully blaming Daniel Ricciardo after the McLaren spun the Mercedes during the opening lap of the Mexican Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas was having a smooth weekend in the Latin American country, capped by the quite brilliant pole on Saturday. But Sunday had completely different things in store for him, the pole-sitter eventually becoming a ‘pit-sitter.’
To start it all off was his collision with Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap, spinning him and sending him right to the rear end. From there on, it was a struggle to get past the McLaren duo of Ricciardo and Lando Norris, and trying to prevent Max Verstappen from winning the bonus point for the fastest lap.
Bottas eventually finished P15, helped in part by a late pit-stop by Mercedes, which ruined his race for good. The Finn is unhappy with Ricciardo but admits he did not do it on purpose, considering it ruined the Aussie’s race as well.
“He [Ricciardo] really ruined my day but I am sure he didn’t do the hit on purpose. It compromised his race as well but it was not ideal.
“Since the spin in turn one with the hit from Daniel, we were really compromised and the best chance we had to get by was stopping twice.
“Following other cars with the engine and brakes overheating it was just more difficult than we thought.
“It was as hard as we expected, as it was back in 2019. The big thing here is to not overheat the engine or the brakes so you cannot push. We did a lot of lift and coast.”
