3c74cb6f231886d935feb7b86506eda4a291e049

Bottas willing to risk more

13:47, 27 Apr 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Valtteri Bottas says he is prepared to take more risks in order to secure a win. Bottas had an opportunity to win the Bahrain Grand Prix but backed out of a move on the last lap against Sebastian Vettel and settled for second place.

The Mercedes driver was seen to have been very conservative and received criticism as other drivers such as teammate Lewis Hamilton or Daniel Ricciardo, in particular, might have made the move for the win.

When he was asked as to whether he would make a move like that in the future, the Finn responded saying he was willing to take more risks in those kinds of situations.

"That's a good question. I was not happy at all with a second place, even though otherwise I felt it was a decent race for me (in Bahrain), but second place was not enough.

"And yes, maybe I'm willing to take a bit more risk for that than before, but of course we need to remember it's a long season ahead."

Bottas has had the measure of his four-time champion teammate Lewis Hamilton for the majority of the season so far, and Bottas believes he now has what it takes to take the fight to the Brit.

"I think we are starting the weekend here with an equal feeling as teammates, that we're both the leading drivers, there's never going to be one or two.

"I think end of last year when I started to find the gains, when I started to learn from my difficult races, the last two race weekends last year were decent.

"I've been able to kind if just continue from there. Performance-wise I've had some good races this year. I just keep going like I've always done, keep learning from every single mistake."