Sauber driver Valtteri Bottas had his penultimate race for the team at Qatar. Over the weekend, the team showed a strong performance in all sessions. However, Bottas was left unhappy with his P11 finish in Sunday’s Grand Prix.
The Finn had a great opening day on Friday, as he finished 13th in the Sprint Qualifying. In the Sprint on Saturday, Bottas ended up in 12th place. Teammate Zhou Guanyu was quite a way behind.
On the same day, both Sauber’s ended up in Q2 for the main event on Sunday. Zhou put on an excellent performance and missed out on Q3 by 0.07 seconds. Bottas was a couple of tenths away.
In the chaotic race at the Lusaka International Circuit, Zhou scored Sauber’s first four points of the season.
Unhappy with Qatar GP strategy but happpy for the team
Bottas expressed frustration over a tough race where a poorly timed safety car and a suboptimal strategy left him outside the points in 11th place.
While happy for teammate Zhou Guanyu and the team for scoring their first points of the season, he was disappointed to finish with zero points himself, calling it a missed opportunity for a better result.
”At the end, you get the optimal strategy and the other one, the support strategy.
“And also the timing of the safety car was the worst for me, so it’s a shame because a really bad race, now I was 11th, half decent race, should have got points.
”But obviously I’m happy for Zhou and for the team to at least get a couple of points.
”Everyone deserves at least those couple of points. Nobody wants to be that team who doesn’t score, so at least that curse is off.
“But like I said, I still got zero points, which is not great, so that’s the main feeling now.”
Last chance in Abu Dhabi
He hopes to be in the mix in Abu Dhabi again and says that the Qatar GP race summed up the difficulties of this year. The former Mercedes driver adds that he will prepare as usual but will also have a tour on his bicycle for two days.
”I have one race left for now. Hopefully in Abu Dhabi we’re going to fight as well, so. Just overall I think this race for me kind of sums up the season.
”Full steam. Probably try to enjoy it as well, but same preparation as normal. I’m going actually alone to the desert near Dubai, just me and my bicycle for two days.”
Running over the debris
Bottas was also asked about Alex Albon’s mirror he ran over during the race as he went off the racing line to allow Piastri and Leclerc through.
The debris left caused punctures for Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz. He expects a review and talks about it in Abu Dhabi.
”I heard maybe, yes, I didn’t notice anything”. Asked if he was informed about it, Bottas denied it but “got told after,” he explained: “I couldn’t see any debris, so I’ve never noticed anything significant.”
”I don’t have much to say really about that, I mean, I’m sure there will be a review and we’ll talk about it in Abu Dhabi.”
Bottas with floor damage after Lawson clash
Bottas had a clash with RB’s Liam Lawson on the first safety car restart, that spun around the Kiwi into Turn 1. The incident resulted in a 10-second time penalty for Lawson, who later apologised to Bottas.
“In these conditions we’re trying to do everything we can for warm-up,” he explained after the race.
“I thought I had more grip than I did, and I went into Turn 1 trying obviously to make the move — I got halfway around the corner and realised I didn’t have the grip.
“I think I spun because I was trying not to hit Valtteri and I guess I did so I’m sorry for that – it wasn’t my intention.”
