Saturday September 11th 2021
Finn drives on his own account
Will Bottas now become a problem for Hamilton?
For the second time this year there will be a sprint race. Half an hour. No tire changes, just a full bottle. And that in Monza. Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas starts from pole. This is not good news for his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
What is Valtteri Bottas doing? The still-teammate of superstar Lewis Hamilton starts from first place in the sprint race in Monza. This Saturday it starts at 4.30 p.m. (in the live ticker at ntv.de) over 18 laps on the Autodromo Nazionale for the starting grid for the 14th race of the season. But it is also about three points for the winner, two for the runner-up and one point for the runner-up.
In the tough, tight duel for the Formula 1 World Championship between defending champion and seven-time champion Hamilton in a Mercedes and world championship leader and challenger Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, it could possibly be decisive points in the end. He wanted to try “to get as many points as possible”, emphasized Bottas – he has no chance in the world championship fight.
The Finn also knows that on his farewell tour of Mercedes after five years at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday he is faced with extremely tricky tasks. Because of the strategic exchange of the drive unit, Bottas will be given a penalty in the race on Sunday. The question is, how does the 32-year-old future Alfa Romeo driver behave on Saturday?
Hamilton mourns the points afterwards
“We have lost a lot of points this year, so every point counts and we have to try to capitalize on these sprint racing weekends,” said his team-mate Hamilton. The 36-year-old Brit, seven-time world champion, wants to finally reach the next historic mark of his career with the 100th Grand Prix victory and get the highest possible number of points – 29 – this weekend. Three points in the sprint and the resulting pole would be the ideal basis.
In qualifying, Verstappen was almost half a second slower on one lap compared to Bottas. He was happy with third place, emphasized the 23-year-old Red Bull driver who, after the victories in Belgium and the Netherlands, traveled to Lombardy as world championship leader with three points ahead of Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel also emphasized that ultimately the race on Sunday counts, after the new format with qualification on Friday had only come about for the second time in Monza. Vettel only managed eleventh place, the four-time world champion has to make up places in the Aston Martin in the half-hour sprint. For compatriot Mick Schumacher, after rank 18, it’s about keeping the position in the defeated Haas and possibly working his way even further forward.
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