Bottas rues Silverstone misfortune after costly late puncture
Monday, 3 August 2020
Second looked to be in the bag for the Finn.
Valtteri Bottas was left to rue his misfortune after a puncture in a dramatic finish left him without a solitary point from the British Grand Prix.
Bottas looked to be cruising to second place behind Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton before his front-left tyre blew with two laps to go at Silverstone.
Hamilton suffered the same issue on the final lap, but somehow limped to a seventh victory on home soil ahead of Max Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc taking third spot.
Bottas could only cross the line in 11th place after making his way back to the pits on three tyres and trails championship leader Hamilton by 30 points.
The Finnish driver felt he might have a problem so late in the race but could not have envisaged how damaging it could be.
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He told Sky Sports F1: "It was really disappointing and very unlucky. Also, where I got the puncture, I had to go round the whole lap, so not ideal.
"We knew it was going to be a long stint on the hard tyres and of course I was trying to put pressure on Lewis.
"I started to get more and more vibration, I reported that and then at the end I had it in my mind there could be an issue, so I started to manage it a bit. But it happened so suddenly, and I didn't really predict it happening."
With soft compounds to be fitted and warmer weather forecast at the same circuit next weekend, Bottas says teams will have to adopt different strategies.
He added: "It's going to be an issue for everyone. One stop is not going to happen with the compounds we have next week, so I'm sure there is going to be lots of things learned from this weekend, but we need to move on I guess."
