F1 News
Bottas wants clarification: "There were no yellow flags to be seen anywhere"
- GPblog.com
A broken section of Sebastian Vettel's front wing did not do the Valtteri Bottas' race any good last Sunday. The debris was stuck under the Finn's Mercedes throughout the race, which lost him a lot of time.
Eight tenths per lap
Bottas, who started from pole position, seemed to have good chances for victory over Imola, especially due to the poor start of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. In the second lap, however, he hit the broken front wing of Vettel's Ferrari, which prevented him from maintaining his potential pace. Mercedes calculated that it cost Bottas about eight tenths per lap. In the end, several mistakes allowed Max Verstappen to pass him for second place after Hamilton had passed him earlier with a different strategy.
Clarification
Bottas was particularly outraged afterwards by the lack of yellow flags in the opening phase of the race. "I only received a warning from my engineer about some gravel in turn seven during the second lap. For us as drivers there were no yellow flags to be seen anywhere," Bottas said on Motorsport.com.
The Mercedes driver now wants clarification for the next Grand Prix. "It would be good to know why there was no warning sign for such a large piece of carbon. It's dangerous, especially if there are bits of it flying around. Besides, it hasn't helped my race very much."