“It’s tactical because I want to make it to the end of the race”– Valtteri Bottas takes another engine penalty hit for second race in row

“It’s tactical because I want to make it to the end of the race”– Valtteri Bottas will take another engine hit for the second race in a row.

Mercedes’ prompting Valtteri Bottas to take another engine hit for the second race in a row, which may arise speculations that it has been enacted to help his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the championship fight.

Meanwhile, Bottas has claimed that the new engine change is a tactical move, which would allow him to finish the race in Russia, as he cited his poor qualifying performance being the primary reason for the change.

“I think it’s tactical because I want to make it to the end of the race, for sure,” said Bottas. “Of course you can always sometimes choose where you take it.”

“Having quite unlucky qualifying yesterday we decided it’s the right thing to do. I still believe I have a chance to come up very high and I want to be on the podium for sure.”

A spoiler tactic?

While Bottas claims it to be an engine change for a better performance, Mercedes came into deep waters after underwhelming performance in the Saturday’s qualifying, where the Silver Arrows were expected to make the most out of Verstappen’s setback.

However, a P4 for Hamilton against Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz and George Russell (whose car is swift on the straight) made it an arduous task for the Briton.

So deploying Bottas at the back of the grid will obviously hamper Verstappen’s progress in the race, considering, he would also be battling Charles Leclerc and Nicholas Latifi in the same area.

So, a wider gape between Verstappen and Hamilton can be achieved by Mercedes could be the reason of the sudden change.