Valtteri Bottas said his crash during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix was down to him “pushing too hard”.
The Mercedes driver lost control of his car and crashed into a wall at turn two while he was beginning his first flying lap in Q3. Team mate Lewis Hamilton went on to take pole position.
“I think I was just pushing a bit too hard,” Bottas admitted. “I went wide in turn one and the kerb was still a bit damp. I lost the rear of the car and hit the wall outside of turn two.”
“It’s very unfortunate and I feel sorry for the team because we have a really competitive car. It looked like it was damaged pretty badly, so I really hope we can fix it for the race.”
Mercedes head of motorsport Toto Wolff said: “it was a big hit and the boys will have a long job list to get the car ready to race.”
Bottas faces a recovery effort in tomorrow’s race, which he will start no higher than 10th
“Overtaking is difficult on this track, but we’ll try everything we can,” said Bottas. “Maybe it’s a little easier this year with the added DRS zone, we’ll find out tomorrow.”
“We have a good car, so I’ll try to fight back the best I can. Once we get the car in the window, it seems like it’s really quick, so that’s something positive from today.”
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Chaitanya
24th March 2018, 9:24
Just out of curiosity any word whether he is getting hit by gearbox penalty or starting from pitlane? That was a big lateral hit to car and I think gearbox would have taken a beating. Even for repairs it looks like a big rebuild job for team.
Hugh (@hugh11)
24th March 2018, 9:44
I think he’ll be starting from the pitlane, as they’ll have to take the car out of parc ferme to fix it, which if I’m right in saying means you start from the pits
Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
24th March 2018, 9:57
Yeah, it’s quite likely that he’ll be starting from the pits. IMO if Merc play their strategy cards right, he could fight for a podium position, considering Ferrari have to catch up to Hamilton and keep the RBs at the same time.
Martin
24th March 2018, 10:49
If they get the starting tyre right and he has a bit of luck with the weather or safety car he’ll be right up there.
Girts (@girts)
24th March 2018, 9:48
It seems that Bottas buckled under the pressure today. It is hard to blame him from that as there are only a couple of drivers in the world who could match Hamilton’s pace in the same car and a couple more, who could be close enough to put him under pressure and grab the opportunity when it comes. Sadly I do not think that Bottas is one of those drivers.
This is is a bad sign for the 2018 season. Today pretty much reminds me of the 2011 Australian Grand Prix where Sebastian Vettel had almost 0.8s advantage over the rest of the grid in qualifying. Hopefully there will still be interesting races and some surprises on the way in 2018 (just like in 2011) but right now it seems highly unlikely that anyone, including Bottas, will be able to challenge Hamilton for the title.
SparkyAMG (@)
24th March 2018, 10:19
I’m a bit gutted for Bottas to be honest.
He’s been preparing himself physically and mentally throughout the winter break, knowing deep down that he would have to perform better this season than he has ever done before in order to keep his seat at Mercedes in 2019.
First high pressure situation of the season and he bins it. He’s just made 2018 that much harder for himself.
Blazzz
24th March 2018, 15:07
I just don’t get this though. Sure BOT experienced a mid-late season rot last year but he still did enough to help Merc win the constructors. He isn’t under-performing like Kimi has for the past few seasons. Sure he didn’t keep Lewis honest like ROS did but comeon give the guy a break.
Carlos Furtado das Neves
24th March 2018, 14:18
Valtteri needs to be more “in the mood” for “the party mode”…
bull mello (@bullmello)
24th March 2018, 18:07
Though the track was dry, the just offline wet parts are quite unforgiving to anyone who dares touch them. Didn’t take much for Bottas to find that out.