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Bottas blames safety car for second-place finish

13:38, 16 Apr 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Valtteri Bottas had executed a brilliant undercut strategy on Sebastian Vettel on Ferrari and seemingly had the pace to keep the German behind. A late safety car threw up a late race surge from Red Bull and he was passed by Daniel Ricciardo for the win.

Mercedes man Valtteri Bottas says the late safety car during the Chinese Grand Prix was the sole reason he missed out on the win.

It has been a season of almosts for Valtteri Bottas so far in 2018. The Shanghai comeback from Red Bull denied him a probable win after a late race safety car changed the entire complexion of the race, handing a charging Daniel Ricciardo all the tools he needed to get the win.

Bottas said that despite holding of a revitalised Kimi Raikkonen and rampant Max Verstappen, he was still disappointed with another nearly-win result for the second week running.

“This is disappointing; today doesn’t feel like winning a podium but like losing a win,” he said. “Coming home second is not what we aimed for after the beginning of the race and the successful undercut.

“The team did a really good job, the pit stop was absolutely perfect and came at the right moment. We lost the race under the safety car.

"When it came out, Sebastian and I were already past the pit entry, so we were a bit unlucky, the cars behind us could react, but we didn’t have any choice. They could get fresh tyres, but I ended up doing nearly 40 laps on the Medium, so of course it was slower in the end.

“It’s very close between Red Bull, Ferrari and us, so we need to make sure we keep developing our car. Nearly winning both last weekend and this weekend is the worst feeling – but it makes both me and the entire team even hungrier. Thankfully there are a lot more races to go.”