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How will Valtteri Bottas cope with all the pressure?
Valtteri Bottas in under some serious pressure. At the beginning of the season, it seemed that the Finn would be the only one able to challenge Lewis Hamilton but now Bottas needs to be looking behind as Max Verstappen continues his approach up the Championship ladder.
Bottas is now fighting on two fronts. Verstappen is only 22 points behind Bottas and considering the Hungarian Grand Prix is set to favour Red Bull, Bottas must be shaking in his boots.
Having started the season so well it seems that the Mercedes driver has slowly become the driver of 2018 again. He has won two races so far this season but the last victory was all the way back at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Bottas has traditionally struggled with pressure and now that talks of him being replaced are heating up it is likely that the pressure will get to him and his performances will drop.
The Finn now has to look behind him and if he focuses on the battle with Verstappen he will be criticised for not pushing Hamilton and if he tries to battle with Hamilton he will be criticised for being too slow.
Having crashed out of the German Grand Prix Bottas needs to prove his worth this weekend else he faces heading into the summer break with his head down and feeling demoralised, which will impact his performance for the rest of the year.
Perhaps he should pay a visit to Nico Rosberg's Sports Psychologist!