Despite still being 23rd in a 20-car championship, Valtteri Bottas was feeling positive after the Las Vegas Grand Prix. He started last, courtesy of a five-place grid penalty, and opted for the hard tyre in an attempt to make something happen. Unfortunately for the Finn, this didn’t work out.
“We actually thought, well we never tried the hard tyre, so it was a bit unknown, but we were in a hope that we could do one stop. Hard, medium, go long, but quite soon even the hard tyres just drained.
“So that just compromised everything. Even the stint lengths were not quite optimal, so just compromised by the change in the tyre.”
The tactical shot in the dark eventually meant a last place finish for Bottas, whereas team mate Zhou Guanyu managed to come home in 13th, showing the car has made some progress with the recent updates.
“I think [Zhou] had a cleaner race and also starting with the medium probably was the better call today. And I tried to do from middle to the end of the race, tried to do my part, holding up Colapinto a bit and also Stroll. But still not quite enough for top ten, but some signs of some improvements.”
The latter remark showed Bottas’ role over the weekend, which was that of team player. Knowing he would be dropping five places, he sacrificed his qualifying to give Zhou a tow on the neverending straight of the Las Vegas Strip.
Bottas hopes for chance to score all-important point
With just two races remaining in his Kick Sauber tenure, Bottas hopes he can help the team finally getting that elusive point, which would also see him leave the last position in the standings.
“I really hope so,” he said. “I feel that we have gained some stability, some consistency in the car. And actually the biggest issue this weekend has been understeer in some of the corners.
“But Qatar is very different, it’s going to be higher temperatures, but I think the whole platform is now much more stable. So it’s hard to predict, but I just hope so that we still get a chance.”
