11/06/2019
NEWS STORY
While Ferrari proved yesterday that it can beat Mercedes, driver mistakes and questionable strategy aside, it is clear that this is only possible on certain circuits.
Consequently, Valtteri Bottas remains the only real threat to Lewis Hamilton taking his sixth title, but with Bottas 2.0 MIA throughout the Montreal weekend, it appears the Finn might not be up for a sustained challenge.
Following a disastrous qualifying session, which saw him line up sixth on the grid, the Finn had a largely anonymous Sunday afternoon, taking a few crumbs of comfort in the form of an additional point for the fastest lap.
However, as his rollercoaster season continues, version 2.0 one weekend, version 1.00 the next, Bottas insists that he is not feeling the pressure.
"I have no pressure," he told reporters. "I'm happy about the situation, how things have been going since the start of the year and really enjoying it.
"I made a mistake and at the end of qualifying I was maybe trying too much to recover, but that can happen," he admitted. "I wouldn't say that anything from the last couple of races had anything to do with pressure, including this weekend, so I can't confirm that. I don't think that's what happened and I can say there's no pressure.
"For sure I can't be too satisfied with P4," he added. "At least I made up a couple of places and also got the extra point for the fastest lap, that is positive.
"The beginning of the race was tougher than what I was hoping for, I lost one position after being boxed in, in Turn 2, then there was a bit of a train of cars with DRS in the beginning and I was quite a bit limited by engine overheating and also brake overheating, so I couldn't really get close enough to push past.
"I was kind of just waiting for the opportunities and eventually they all boxed. By the time they stop I had already lost a lot of time for the top three cars and then I was OK in clean air. It was OK, no big issues, the second stint felt quick but everything came down to what happened yesterday. That's how it is."
Referring to his battle with Daniel Ricciardo, which at one point saw the Finn back off, despite pulling alongside the Australian in the final corner courtesy of DRS, he said: "It was actually a pretty good fight with Daniel. Sometimes he was defending quite at the limit of the regulations, because he was kind of waiting for me to make the move and then he would kind of block me after, at pretty high speeds.
"I wasn't complaining, because I like hard racing, so it was on the limit. It was some good defending from him and definitively didn't make it easy for me to get past. But it was all OK."