10/08/2020
NEWS STORY
A week after the heartache of the British Grand Prix, when a late tyre failure robbed him of a certain podium, dropping the Finn to 11th, Bottas lost out again in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix due to what he considers to be a strategic failure by his team.
"Very frustrating, obviously, starting from pole and finishing third, it's not ideal," he said at race end. "As a team we were sleeping at some point, when Max got ahead of us and my strategy was far, far from ideal, so we have a lot to learn from today."
While the Finn got ahead of the Red Bull following their second stops, the Dutchman reclaimed the position just a couple of corners later, and on fresher rubber Lewis Hamilton was able to take second from Bottas with just three laps remaining.
Asked when he realised the race was lost, he said: "When I lost track position to Max... I was asking the team if I could go faster," he continued, "because I was managing the tyres around that time, but I got the message that keeping the tyres in good condition was still the priority. Then, obviously, Max came out of the pits pretty much side by side and got me into Turns 6 and 7, so then I knew it could be tricky.
"I was hoping there would be opportunities," he admitted, "but then the middle stint was quite short and when I saw Max stopping at the same time as me, I knew it was going to be tricky.
"Towards the end of the last stint I tried to push flat out, to create opportunities and I was catching him slightly, but then the tyres gave up completely.
"I think that, for me, I should have definitively gone longer in the second stint. The last stint was way too long and that's when I also lost the position to Lewis.
"I was trying to stay ahead, if there was a chance, to keep up with Max, but as soon as I started to push, towards the end, the tyres just fell apart. There was a lot of blistering on the tyres for us today and it seems like Red Bull had none, so they clearly have an edge over there."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone, here.