“I’m not here to let people by” – Valtteri Bottas says he is here to race after holding up Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton as he attempted to go past Max Verstappen.
Mercedes won the battle of strategy as an early pit stop won Lewis Hamilton the Spanish Grand Prix. Hamilton had fresh tyres, and was lapping much quicker than race leader Max Verstappen, and needed teammate Valtteri Bottas to let him by at P2. But Bottas waited for quite a bit before doing so and has now addressed the issue.
“I could have let him [Hamilton] by earlier. But I was doing my own race. I’m not here to let people by, I’m here to race.”
Bottas lost P3 to Charles Leclerc on the opening lap
Mercedes had a poor start to the race, with Hamilton and Bottas losing track position to Verstappen and Charles Leclerc respectively. Bottas admitted he did not see the Ferrari coming but did well to reclaim the position later on in the race.
“I think what made it tricky for me is I lost the place to Charles on lap one at turn three. I didn’t see him actually so he got the better line and went past me and then I was stuck behind him for a while and compromised the race. Otherwise, the pace wasn’t too bad so a bit of a shame.”
“I think it is just small details today like lap one at turn three. Otherwise, the pace is there. As a team, we are scoring solid points but not perfect points so there is work to do.”
