OTD: Bottas Scored his First Points

On this day in F1, not many events took place, since November usually lands close to the end of the season. However, a couple of significant events took place like future Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas scoring his first points.

This took place during the 2013 US Grand Prix where Sebastian Vettel romped to his eighth win in a row. In the process, he set the record for the most consecutive victories in a single season. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean’s incredibly strong run continued with a superb second place, splitting the Red Bulls as Mark Webber finished third.

It was a difficult weekend for Williams as Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado accused them of sabotaging his car. Their only silver lining was when Bottas put together a fine weekend to finish eighth and score his first career points. It was only the second time all season that Williams had managed a top 10 finish.

Rewinding the clock to 2003, McLaren-Mercedes announced that Juan Pablo Montoya would be joining the team for the 2005 season. The Colombian driver would be partnering Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen. Montoya’s decision to ditch Williams came off the back of that year’s French GP. He claimed that the team was favouring teammate Ralf Schumacher, who had won the race.

He angrily ranted at them over team radio and in the motorhome after the race. Finally, Montoya decided to look elsewhere for fresher pastures. However, he was already tied into racing for Williams until the end of 2004. In all honesty, that final year with Williams must have truly been an awkward one.

He would race with the McLaren team for two more years before retiring and joining American Stock Car series, NASCAR. With McLaren, he only managed three more wins, which all came in the 2005 season. In 2006, he got on the podium twice, with Monaco being his final podium. He left the sport mid-season after the US Grand Prix and was replaced by test driver Pedro de la Rosa.