Sunday, September 5th, 2021
“Break off the round!”
Bottas pests Mercedes and Hamilton
Valtteri Bottas will no longer drive for Mercedes next season, that’s for sure. But currently the Finn is still on the road for the successful racing team in Formula 1 – and causes irritation on his farewell tour. The Finn almost “steals” a very important point from his team-mate.
Valtteri Bottas is a loyal supporter of Lewis Hamilton, the Finn presented himself for many years as a loyal supporter of the Briton on his way from world championship to world championship title. But even if it is not yet official: Bottas will leave Mercedes after the end of the season, the personnel will probably be announced during the upcoming race weekend in Sotchi. But it seems that the 32-year-old has already embarked on the farewell tour emotionally – and is hugely annoying his team at the Grand Prix in Zandvoort shortly before the end of the race.
Contrary to the express team order, Bottas still grabs the fastest race lap from his superior Hamilton. The Briton, who lost the World Championship lead in Max Verstappen’s home win, would have missed such an important point in the race for his eighth world title. “Stolen” from your own teammate. On the last lap of the race, Hamilton countered the Finn’s attack on fresh tires and still grabbed the bonus point. Hamilton is now three points behind Verstappen.
Bottas, who will probably be replaced at Mercedes by Williams driver George Russell, was also a tactical element in his racing team’s arsenal in the Zandvoort dunes. After the opponents Hamilton and Verstappen, who are delivering the closest world championship race in years, came to the pit stop one after the other, the Finn led the race – and had to serve as a block to give Hamilton the chance to approach Verstappen again. Alone: It didn’t work because Bottas made a driving mistake on degrading tires and couldn’t stop the Dutchman for long.
“Break off the round!”
But the excitement followed much later, three laps before the end of the race: Mercedes called Bottas, who was safely in third place, to the pits, officially for safety reasons, because vibrations had been detected on the car. “Valtteri also knows that this is not the truth,” said Nico Hülkenberg, surprised at the ‘ServusTV’ microphone. Bottas reacted defiantly to the interruption of his race – and started an attack on Hamilton’s lap time with fresh tires.
After two best times in the first two sectors, Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles personally intervened on the pit radio: “Break the lap!” he urged his outgoing driver unequivocally in defiance mode. Bottas then actually took off the gas in the third sector, but the fast lap could no longer be avoided. And that made for hectic at Mercedes: “I need this point!”, Radioed Hamilton excitedly, shortly before the end of the race the record world champion got fresh tires again – and countered his own colleague on the last lap.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff commented on the incident calmly: “We had to remind him a little that he was taking off the gas. He did that,” said the Austrian, at least outwardly relaxed. “Valtteri was a bit cheeky. He just wanted to show that he had the pace. That was okay.” Bottas had assured that he had “not tried to set the fastest lap.” Rather, they “made a safety stop at the end, with the big gap behind us. I gave everything, but the pace just wasn’t quite there.” After the big back and forth, the point for the fastest lap finally landed safely with Mercedes – and, as requested by the team, with Lewis Hamilton. He can really use him: the serial winner of the past few years is now back in the role of the hunter.
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