After losing the pole 0.1 seconds to teammate Lewis Lewis Hamilton on Saturday, Valtteri Bottas had spoken of the crucial ‘drag race’ at Turn 1 between the two Silver Arrows drivers at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix . But in the event that it didn’t materialize, Bottas made the worst possible escape, and the Finn blamed the lights of his career for distracting him at the crucial moment.
There was a drama before the race when Max Verstappen crashed on the way to the grill in greasy conditions, and more drama followed when Bottas miscalculated the start lights, moving ahead before stopping immediately and then getting bogged down when the race started. , just a few moments later.
Bottas escaped punishment for a good start, but having dropped to P6 on the first lap, it was a recovery race for the Finn, who finally struggled to return to third place on the flag. But after the race, I only had the beginning in mind.
“It was a pretty bad race to be honest with me,” he said. “Obviously, starting second, I wanted to win the race, but I lost it at the beginning. I reacted to a light on my dash that went out. I don’t know what it was, so something changed on my dash and I reacted to that instead of the start light and I had to start over and lost it there. ”
READ MORE: Hamilton reaches the eighth victory of the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Verstappen recovers to the second
Expanding on what had happened at the post-race press conference, Bottas added: “I think it was the front page of the dash that changed a different color or something, a really bright color.
“So that’s all I needed to react. I thought the lights went out and anyway I almost saw the start lights because of the halo and the position I was in.
“It was a strange situation and I am sure that we will review the on board [camera] And what exactly happened? I will make sure that nothing changes on the board at a crucial moment, because we don’t want any distraction like that at a sensitive moment. “
Hungarian GP: watch the start of the 2020 F1 race
Having struggled to regain order, Bottas closed about a second behind Verstappen in second place. But with its tires beyond the best, Mercedes rolled the dice, bringing Bottas on hard tires 20 laps. Bottas roared back, clutching Verstappen’s tail with two laps to go, but eventually ran out of laps to launch a serious attack.
“I was fighting to the end,” said Bottas. “He was close with Max but we needed one more lap. I think it was worth a bet [to make an extra stop] “I think it really gave me that difference in tire life, which was not worth it today.”
Bottas had come to the race in Hungary to six points of Hamilton in the top of the classification of pilots. Leave five behind. Before the season, Bottas had highlighted the need for him to be ultra consistent for a shot at beating Hamilton for the title. When asked if this career, then, had been a severe blow to his aspirations, he said: “[The start] He made this weekend one of those inconsistent weekends he tries to avoid, but it has happened, so what can I do? Learn from this, keep going.
“I’m still very much in the game. Just a bad race and if you end up on the podium with a bad race, you’re still fine. Nothing is lost yet. There’s no point in talking about any blow to confidence or anything I’m doing. Just a bad weekend, I’m not going to let it affect me. Go ahead and try to get some points at Silverstone.
READ MORE: “The second feels like a victory,” says Verstappen as he recovers from the crash before the podium race.
