Bottas Open Up on Retirement from the Austrian Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas took a spectacular pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix yesterday. The Mercedes showcased good pace and so did Valtteri. The Finn started the race being on the backfoot dropping to as low as fourth position after the start, before he started to gain momentum and find his way through the cars ahead.

He soon made lost ground and was second, behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton after a couple of laps. A few laps later, the worst possible thing happened for the Mercedes. Bottas lost hydraulic pressure on lap 14, retiring from the race. From a potential race win at the Austrian Grand Prix, he was down as a non finisher. Unfortunately, his teammate didn’t manage to finish the race either.

“I had a lot of wheelspin at the start so lost momentum into turn 1 and lost a couple of place,” Bottas said.

“Good recovery into second.

“As a team we were in a good position with everything to play for.”

“We lost hydrualic pressyre in Turn 3 on that lap when it happened.

“I had no gears because of that.

“There were no signs of any issues before so it just happened suddenly.

“We haven’t had this kind of failure before so we need to find the reason and fix it.

“But quite unlucky for me as well.”

His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who was already furious over losing positions following a pit stop disaster made by the Mercedes team, retired later in the race, complaining of lack of power.

”I’m fourth now?!” Hamilton asked after making the pit stop.

“I want to say something but I…just leave me to it, Bono.”

On a race track Mercedes were expected to dominate, they did not manage to get either cars across the chequered flag. Max Verstappen took full advantage of the scenario to clinch a spectacular win for himself and Red Bull at the latter’s home circuit.