F1 News
Bottas: ‘I can’t afford these kind of weekends’
- Bevan Youl
Valtterri Bottas has admitted that he ‘can’t afford these kind of weekends’ after falling more points behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the championship thanks to an average performance at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Bottas started sixth on the grid after mistakes on his final runs in Q3, starting behind Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly.
The Finn was overtaken at the start by Hulkenberg and then had a many lap battle in the latter stages with Ricciardo, to ultimately take a fourth placed finish.
Bottas said (quoted by RaceFans): “I felt really good in Q1, Q2.
“From Q2 I had a clear idea of how to improve, where to improve and I was really confident. And then it really came down to a silly mistake.
“So it’s not ideal but I have to move on. Maybe a bit of a wake-up call again, for sure I can always learn from that.”
Temperature was one of the main issues he encountered throughout the race, mainly due to the car being setup to perform further up the grid from qualifying than expected.
“[Sunday] was a degree or two warmer than everyone maybe thought it was going to be," he added.
“We were kind of counting that we were going to be on the first row or at least second row but being in third row makes it always a lot more difficult.
“So we knew there could be trouble and so there was.”