Valtteri Bottas lagged far behind everyone else in Saudi Arabia – this is how he explained his problems on Viaplay

Valtteri Bottas was only 18th in the Saudi Arabian race and finished last. Red Bull took a sovereign double victory.

Listen to the F1 episode of Urheilu’s podcast! ‘s F1 expert Jukka Mildh opens up, among other things, the reasons for Mercedes’ collapse and explains why Aston Martin shines. Valtteri Bottas’ F1 future is also on the agenda. Finnish F1 hope Tuukka Taponen is also in the vote.

In the F1 race in Saudi Arabia, we saw the deafening superiority of Red Bull. Sergio Perez drove to victory. An overwhelming champion favorite Max Verstappen drove behind his teammate to second.

The drive shaft of the Dutchman’s car broke during Saturday’s qualifying. Verstappen started the race 15th on the starting grid, but the Dutchman steadily climbed up the leaderboard.

The champion of the previous two seasons was even more lucky when Aston Martin By Lance Stroll the car froze on the side of the track. Verstappen was able to make a pit stop without losing any places.

Both Perez and Verstappen reported technical problems at the end of the race, but the duo finished safely.

According to Verstappen, the problems plagued him until the end of the race.

– We just decided to settle for second place, Verstappen told the end of the drama.

In a dream situation, the Dutchman could have even challenged Perez for the win. Only once in F1 history has a race been won from the 15th grid. It succeeded Fernando Alonso in 2008 in Singapore.

– In the beginning it was difficult to follow the cars. I only passed the others one car at a time, Verstappen described his race in the track interview.

According to Perez, the safety car could have taken the win away from him in the worst case.

– The most important thing is that we have the fastest car. I’m happy about that, Perez said.

Alonso finished third in Saudi Arabia, but was dropped to fourth after the race.

Alonso made a mistake even before the start of the race, when he placed his car incorrectly on the starting grid. The Spaniard received a five-second time penalty.

The penalty was served during the pit stop, but the Aston Martin mechanics touched the car irregularly before the penalty was served. So Alonso received a ten-second penalty after the race.

Bottas surprised his team with his car’s problems

Alonso received another ten-second time penalty after the race. Mercedes George Russell came third.

With Valtteri Bottas was really difficult. Bottas, who started from the 14th starting grid, immediately lost one place on the opening lap. The Finn was unable to challenge for the lead at any point and had the misfortune of pitting before Stroll’s stoppage.

At the end of the race, Bottas wondered on the team radio if there was something wrong with the car. The team replied that it would not. However, Bottas asked to check the situation again.

– There is something here, Bottas complained.

Bottas finished last in the race, in 18th place.

– No tire compound had speed from the start. Have to try to find fault. In the first lap, a part of the car flew in front. It went under the car. It felt like it bumped quite nicely. Maybe there was some damage to the diffuser, Bottas said in an interview with Viaplay.

Bottas believed that the reason for the lackluster race was some fault in the car.

– It wasn’t quite a normal race. There should have been a clearly better pace and result today, Bottas said.