22/10/2015
NEWS STORY
Two weeks after that last lap clash in Sochi, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen continue to see things differently.
The last lap clash saw the Williams driver lose a certain place on the podium, whilst the Ferrari star’s penalty meant Mercedes wrapped up the constructors’ title a couple of weeks early.
"It hasn't changed, obviously," said the Ferrari driver. "There were some discussions and obviously penalties given to me, but I would still do it tomorrow again.
"Unfortunately we came together in the end and we both lost a bit," he continued, a masterpiece of understatement. That is life, you know, that is racing, and I don't feel bad about it. And if somebody feels it is up to them, but it is OK for me.
"Like I said, I will do the same thing next time and we will see, maybe it goes better."
A two week cooling off period and the penalties meted out to his countryman have clearly done little to change Bottas' view of the incident.
"For me it is the same really," he said. "Obviously it was a good weekend until the last lap, so of course it is disappointing to lose the points, but my opinion hasn't changed. I wouldn't do anything different. But it's history, and I'm ready to move on."
Raikkonen had made a similar move on the Williams driver earlier in the race, in exactly the same place, the Ferrari driver running wide in the process despite momentarily getting past. Bottas however, insists that the second attempt was different and over optimistic.
"From my point of view the first one was quite a different one," he said. It was much more clear he would do it, and as a driver you're not going to leave the door open two times. So for me it was a different kind of situation, as we saw with the result."
Asked if he wanted to add anything, Raikkonen shrugged and said: "Why would I need to reply, it doesn't change anything...
"I saw it in the end," he added, he added referring to the gap that wasn't there, "however, once he decided to go there I tried to brake as much as I can but there's no way to avoid it.
"What can you do, once you go there... maybe he didn't see me, but I tried to slow, tried to turn in, but in the end if there's no space there's no space and we're going to collide. It's an unfortunate thing, but it's part of racing. We are here to race, it is pointless to cry afterwards."
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