Bottas vs Vandoorne incident causes red flag at Spa, as the McLaren was trying to overtake the Mercedes that was on a slow lap
Valtteri Bottas and Stoffel Vandoorne had a rather ugly incident during the dying stages of FP3 today, when Vandoorne was forced onto the grass and into the side fence because of Bottas being a little ignorant about what was happening behind him.
Bottas was on a slow lap, whereas Vandoorne was putting in the paces with a fast lap of his own when he was forced onto the grass and spun, almost damaging his car right before qualifying.
Vandoorne was clearly frustrated with what had just transpired and was pretty vocal about his feelings, shouting on the radio, ‘What the hell was that Mercedes doing?’.
Who’s fault was it?
While the commentators somehow felt that it was Vandoorne’s fault, as he shouldn’t have overtaken from the side of the track that had the racing line.
However, Bottas was on a slow lap and was at fault as he wasn’t looking at what/who was coming from behind.
He shouldn’t have taken the racing line, and should have known that Vandoorne was out on a fast lap. So, a combination of lack of communication from his team and a little ignorance on the Finn’s part.
Very close between Bottas and Vandoorne. Stoffel actually did a supreme job to stop that being a LOT bigger.
— Will Buxton (@wbuxtonofficial) August 25, 2018
📻 VAN: “What the hell was that Mercedes doing?! He (Bottas) just pushed me onto the grass” #BelgianGP 🇧🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/3ERr4kRHnX
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 25, 2018
Check out the video:
That could have been massive. Vandoorne narrowly misses a slowing Bottas at around 280kph #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/pSWtciuNyW
— Andrew Sorrill (@AndrewsView) August 25, 2018
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