Valtteri Bottas’ run to eighth in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix was the best the Finn could manage in a race in which the Mercedes driver was forced to deal with an engine overheating issue.
Bottas faced a difficult challenge from the outset after his qualifying crash on Saturday led to a gearbox change and a subsequent relegation to 15th on the grid.
On a track where overtaking opportunities are few and far between, the 28-year-old struggled to move up through the field, but circumstances also complicated his task.
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“We expected it was going to be difficult, and we knew that you need a big pace difference delta to overtake if the other guy doesn’t do any mistake, and especially if there’s a train of cars like I had in the whole second stint,” Bottas said.
“There was not a lot of things happening that were really helping me.
“I think with the VSC maybe I gained a little bit, stopping under that, but other than that it was a pretty frustrating race in the end because we do have a good car but there was nothing I could do.”
Furthermore, Bottas’ attempts to move forward were hindered by an overheating issue of his power unit, a problem which also partly affected team mate Lewis Hamilton, who was told to turn down his engine in the closing stages of the race.
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