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Valtteri Bottas insists that he is “not at fault” for the terrible accident at the restart of the safety car that caused four abandonments at the Tuscan Grand Prix.
At the end of a seven-lap safety car period after an incident on the first lap that led to Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly crashing, Bottas kept the peloton at a slow pace to the control line in an attempt to deny the threat of a wake from his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas’ actions are allowed within the regulations as drivers are only prohibited from accelerating and decelerating erratically behind the safety car.
However, numerous drivers from the middle to the rear of the peloton saw the green flags and light panels and returned to race speed before Bottas, serving as the de facto safety car, cleared the field to do so. .
This led to a build-up that resulted in Carlos Sainz, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi and Kevin Magnussen crashing.
Explaining the restart procedure, Bottas explained: “So we are allowed to run from the control line, which has been there for a while.
“The only difference this year has been the safety car – they are turning off the lights quite late, so you can only build the gap quite late.”
“So of course when you are at the helm you try to maximize your chances and it is not my fault.
“Everyone can see everything they want. I was doing a constant speed until I left. Yes, I was late, but we started running from the control line, not before.
“So the guys who crashed behind because of that, they can look in the mirror. There’s no use complaining about that. ”
Bottas, however, believes that the reboot procedure should be reviewed by those in power, claiming that too much emphasis is being placed on improving the show.
He added: “FIA, FOM … I don’t know who decides what happens to the safety cars, but they are trying to improve the show by turning off the lights later so that we can’t build the gap early and then go as a corner before the main straight.
“Maybe it is time to think about whether it is correct and safe to do so.”
Before you leave…
“I was squeezing my heart” – Heartbroken Russell loses first points
Hamilton stunned after “three races in one day” at the Tuscan Grand Prix
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