Second Driver of the Weekend win for Bottas

2017 Austrian Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend result

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The Austrian Grand Prix was the second win of the year for Valtteri Bottas and also the second time he’s topped our Driver of the Weekend poll.

Here’s why F1 Fanatic readers voted him the top driver of the last race:

Valtteri Bottas’s Grand Prix weekend

Bottas rebuffed Vettel
Although Lewis Hamilton had a grid penalty for an a gearbox change, Bottas out-qualified him on merit to take his second career pole position.

His start was controversial, to put it mildly. Bot Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, who started closest to him on the grid, accused him of anticipating the start. Bottas later admitted he had “gambled” with when to make his getaway.

He made that fast start count in the first stint, pulling out a decent lead over Vettel. The Ferrari driver came back at him in the second half of the race but, as in Russia, Bottas had enough in reserve to hold him off.

Another victory Bottas is deserving of credit for without Hamilton’s relative performance being able to be blamed on outright issues. Hamilton had a grid penalty to suffer but Bottas didn’t rest back and accept a gifted result, he beat him in qualifying. He then gave a perfect race start and managed his race inch perfectly to win against a seemingly faster Vettel.

Did Hamilton have more outright speed and was Bottas lucky the race wasn’t 1 lap longer or did he deliver a victory in the slowest time possible?

For all the bluster of Hamilton’s father about him ending careers, Bottas is delivering a very credible season up against him, and best of all he doesn’t fool around drinking his champagne from a sweaty boot, he necks it from the bottle like a real champ.
Philip (@Philipgb)

Between Bottas and Grosjean for me, voted Bottas as he got pole and held off a charging Vettel without cracking under pressure.
@Ksells

Austrian Grand Prix winners and losers

Grosjean impressed by sparring with Raikkonen
Daniel Ricciardo took his fifth consecutive podium and @Macca was especially impressed by his performance:

His weekend was faultless. Out qualified his team mate and put the car as high on the grid as was possible. Then drove an absolute stunning race to keep Hamilton behind and bring home another podium.

I don’t know how other people feel, but I think 99.9% of drivers would have been passed by Hamilton with the move he made into turn 4 on the second last lap. Outstanding piece of defensive driving.
@Macca

Meanwhile Romain Grosjean impressed @PJA:

Bottas was quickest in qualifying to take pole, and was dominant in the race, although his tyre problems meant Vettel closed up a lot at the end.

During the race I thought that Mercedes should have brought Bottas in for his only stop as soon as all the other leading cars had pitted just to cover them, it was then stated in commentary that Vettel had reduced Bottas’s lead significantly by the time he did make his stop which I thought showed they should have brought him in earlier, but considering the state of his tyres at the end of the race it was probably better to leave him out on his first set as long as they did.

Grosjean was best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in both the qualifying and the race, I didn’t notice him much during the race highlights but he seemed to have a good clean race to finish sixth for Haas’s best result of the season.

I the end it was a close decision but I voted for Grosjean.
@PJA

Valtteri Bottas’s Driver of the Weekend wins from 2011 to date

Driver of the weekend: The Twitter verdict

Among the other drivers to win praise on Twitter were Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer, though many were unimpressed with Daniil Kvyat:

2017 Austrian Grand Prix

Browse all 2017 Austrian Grand Prix articles

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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2 comments on “Second Driver of the Weekend win for Bottas”

  1. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
    14th July 2017, 16:33

    I wonder what the Finnish commentators reacted to his second victory.

    1. @iluvsoundtracks More or less similar reaction as with his first win in Sochi.

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