14/04/2019
NEWS STORY
Valtteri Bottas blames a painted white line for the wheel-spin that compromised his start and effectively handed victory to teammate Lewis Hamilton today.
Following the promise of qualifying, and most of the previous practice sessions, it appeared to be Valtteri Bottas 1.0 that started today's Chinese Grand Prix as opposed to Bottas 2.0.
As the field roared down the straight to Turn 1, Hamilton, having made the better start, led the way, going on to take victory and the lead in the world championship.
As in Melbourne, where Bottas effectively won the race at the start, today it was the Finn's turn to lose it.
"Lewis had a better start and for me, the problem was already on the formation lap start," said the Finn. "There was a thick white line just in front of my grid box, so, when you're still accelerating, and when I went over the white line I got some wheel-spin on the formation lap start.
"For the race start, I thought maybe it's going to be better with warmer tyres but it wasn't," he continued, "so once I hit the white line, I got the wheel-spin, took too long to recover it, lost a few metres of distance, and Lewis got me. That's how it goes sometimes.
"I think for the first stint Lewis had a pretty strong stint," he admitted. "I was initially close but obviously when you are behind, you are sliding a bit more, overheating the tyres a bit more.
"After the first stint, the second and third stints were very similar. Just about how much you were managing or pushing.
"So, I think the start was the key, but Lewis did a good job on that. So, that's how it goes."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Shanghai, here.