Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Singapore, 2019

Bottas complains Hamilton spoiled his preparation for final qualifying lap

2019 Singapore Grand Prix

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Valtteri Bottas was unhappy with Lewis Hamilton’s driving at the end of qualifying in Singapore after Hamilton overtook him moments before they began their final laps.

Bottas left the pits in front of Hamilton when the pair started their final runs. The two silver cars were running last in the queue of traffic.

Hamilton did not receive a radio message telling him to overtake Bottas. The pair were not running out of time: Bottas, who was last in the queue after Hamilton passed him, began his final flying lap with around 40 seconds to spare.

After finishing his lap Bottas said on the radio he had been leaving a gap to the car in front, Alexander Albon’s Red Bull, in order to have clear air to run in. “I don’t know what was Lewis doing?” said Bottas. “I was just leaving a gap to the car ahead.”

Hamilton’s final lap moved him up to second place. Bottas lapped seven-tenths of a second slower and took fifth on the grid.

Hamilton said his first lap in Q3 had been “so-so” and he needed a good final run to move up the order.

“Obviously we were a second away and it looked like quite a leap to catch them up. But I just managed to pull back half a second on that last run, nice clean run. But still just two tenths down in the first sector which is obviously where it was lost.”

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63 comments on “Bottas complains Hamilton spoiled his preparation for final qualifying lap”

  1. And the first crack under pressure shows…

    1. Bottas complaining in free air…

    2. Who cracked exactly?

    3. “The two silver cars were running last in the queue of traffic”

      Another way to read this is as the last two cars, Bottas could slow Hamilton to the point where Hamilton runs out of time, whilst Bottas manages to get a time together. This would naturally have been to Bottas advantage.

      So maybe there is more metal to Bottas then we imagine, its just that Hamilton saw through this, saw time was running out, and acting on his own natural instincts of self-preservations.

      Can you imagine if Hamilton had run out of time, or was so slow he was locked out of the first row? What would the story have been then? How would Bottas have faired then, for the rest of this time at Mercedes?

      Bottas should be thankful he was overtaken by Hamilton. ;)

  2. I imagine it will have affected him a bit. But 7 tenths? Nah.

    1. @hugh11
      Bottas was 7 tenths behind Hamilton around Singapore in 2017, 2018 and now 2019. That seems to be his favorite gap around there.

    2. 7 tenths isnt so much if you have cold tyres.

  3. Shock, Bottas is blaming something other than himself for another lacklustre result. Can someone compile this guy’s list of excuses and ‘strange things’ this season please?

    1. I think this will have effected him a bit. But can you list yourself of excuses that you don’t think are not at least slightly true? Why are you asking someone else to when it is you yourself who is against him?

      He is usually very critical towards himself and when he gives a reason, it usually is slightly true. But all drivers will likely make it sound a bigger excuse than it was. I don’t think Bottas has been making many unreasonable excuses at all this season.

      1. He has been making stupid excuses. Painted white line, clutch, now Ham amongst others.

        1. The painted white line was one of his best.

          1. Yea i am aware he has been making plenty, but he usually gives a very good explanation about them. I don’t mind if drivers seem to be using it as a bigger excuse than it is – so long as they make it look clear that it is at least partially true.

    2. The question as I see it is why did Hamilton jump him? Obviously an act of desperation on his part. He’s rattled.
      And apparently he will do whatever it takes to get the fading spotlight back onto himself even at the expense of his teammate.

      1. Desperate? You realize the guy is going to win a SIXTH championship this year?

        He is clearly rattled and desperate.

      2. Hehehe rattled? Yes. That championship table is looking mighty frightening for Lewis. The man is obviously terrified Leclerc will overcome his 100 + point deficit. Boy, some of you really don’t live in the real world do you.

      3. Yes. And what good did it do him? (Well apart from out qualifying his teammate by.7 of a second.) Clearly an act of desperation as you say.

  4. HAM should be more respectful and not play one-sided team games…

    1. A couple of times this season Hamilton has complained that Bottas was too slow in front, spoiling their preparations. Seems he was doing it again. I’d have no patience with him either.

      1. It seems Bottas is only interested in fighting Lewis

    2. It’s Bottas who is playing games. When Hamilton is behind him at the last effort in Q3, Bottas tends to suddenly slow down right at the end of the lap “to create a gap” and then ruins Hamilton’s lap. Happened several times already.

      Not so strange that Hamilton anticipated the same happening again and dealt with it accordingly.

  5. Mercedes alternate choice of who goes first/second on the road in qualifying, and I don’t recall them ever getting mixed up before… who had the pick this weekend, and what did they go for?

    1. Bottas. It was Ham at Monza; but Bottas ‘forgot’ that he was supposed to do the tow on the final run.

      1. Sounds like Hamilton “forgot” Bottas had the lead in Q3.

        Or, Hamilton felt Bottas was deliberately holding him up. Which after being held up by the entire field in Monza, I expect Hamilton would be kind of sensitive about.

  6. C’mon, Bottas, man up! A good wingman never whines.

    1. That’s not true. Vettel hasn’t stopped whinging all season. You would think he would know his place by now.

      1. Since when is Vettel a good wingman?

      2. OUCH that’s cold

        1. …but true

    2. Yes, Lewis nevers whines ….
      He hasn’t whines at Ferrari’s on Monza, he said it was all his fault and his team’s …
      oh wait …

  7. He needs to look at himself and how slow he was going

    https://gifyu.com/image/hJP1

    1. +1. Bottas is clearly asleep there.

    2. He’s going slow to build a big enough gap to the car ahead to not have his lap affected by dirty air. He wasn’t going any slower at that point than others were throughout qualifying for the same reasons. Even Lewis was going about that slowly through that part of the circuit to build a gap to cars ahead during the session.

      Lewis passing Bottas forced him to have to slow down further to ensure he wouldn’t be affected by the dirty air from Hamilton’s car & this meant he ended up starting his lap with lower brake/tyres temperatures than was ideal & that would have cost him time in the first couple corners.

      1. Was the car ahead invisible?

        1. Albon wasn’t that far ahead of him which is the reason he backed off.
          https://imgur.com/BYLv8pm

          Through the session drivers were been told to try & ensure an 8 second gap to cars ahead (To be out of the dirrty air) & that is what Bottas was trying to do by backing off at that point.

          The thing you also do not hear from the gif as you don’t have the engine audio is that when Lewis passed Bottas he then also moved back to the racing line & slowed down before flooring it into the final corners & that caused Bottas to have to slow down even more.

          Incidentally Hamilton did the same to Leclerc at the same place on there first runs in Q3 which is part of why Leclerc was slower on the first run.

          1. Roger, the video just posted doesn’t bear out what you are saying about Lewis slowing

            Please don’t tell porkies

      2. Bottas is super slow even on his fast lap, imagine how slow he can go on an out lap… Night quali, street circuit, you can go slow as long as you don’t let your tires asleep… Hamilton had to go for it… He can’t stay forever behind waiting Bottas and coming his tires. After all, he was Merc’s only hope

        1. Bottas’s best lap in Q1 was 2 and a half tenths faster than Hamilton. In Q2 he 2 tenths behind. First run in Q3, he was just 0.036 behind Hamilton. Bottas was certainly not slow compared to Hamilton this qualifying session, other than on his final run where he did get effected a little. I doubt that cost him 7 tenths. But I think he will have likely qualified 4th or possibly 3rd had his warm up lap gone to plan.

          He looked well off Hamilton pace wise in practice, but almost matched during qualifying. The last lap wasn’t a true reflection of the difference between them.

          Bottas has never at any point this year been that far behind Hamilton in qualifying. He looked this far off in singapore both the previous years though – but that looked to be the case based on the rest of qualifying. He actually looked quick this time until the last lap issue. Hopefully he won’t look like the last 2 years during the race.

          1. @thegianthogweed Looking at Q1 and Q2 is useless. Reality is that Bottas, Vettel and Verstappen simply didn’t improve with their final run in Q3. Hamilton and Leclerc did.

            Hamilton was massively ahead in Canada and Germany too.

    3. Dang. After seeing that, I’m not surprised Hamilton shot past him. He was off line, and going slow. I’d assume he was having mechanical difficulties, and done the same as Hamilton.

    4. Neil, please don’t confuse people with the facts and evidence.

    5. thanks for the clip. https://gifyu.com/image/hJP1

      Hamilton coming upon Bottas out of that blind corner could have lead to an accident.

      Its just good fortune that Bottas was just past the apex and moving over from that corner, otherwise it would have taken ever instinct of Hamilton avoid contact. That was plain stupid by Bottas. How he expected Hamilton to slow down there, is beyond me. I have no idea what he was thinking. Bottas can’t have seen this reply.

  8. It looks like Bottas was looking to back Hamilton up and mar his out lap preparation, unlucky pal you got owned.

    I still don’t know how Hamilton ruined his lap though…..

    1. he lost his tyre temps because Hamilton

      1. Bottas was waiting on the cars ahead, before he sped up, apparently. So how was the gap ahead ok for Hamilton. How much longer was Hamilton suppose to wait for Bottas?

  9. Hamilton should have just backed off & allowed a bigger gap to build between him & Bottas to allow both of them to get clean laps in. He had no real reason to do what he did, He should have just backed off.

    Lewis passing Bottas when he did forced Bottas to have to slow down further to ensure he wouldn’t be affected by the dirty air from Hamilton’s car & this meant he would have ended up having to start his lap with lower brake/tyres temperatures than was ideal & that would have cost him time in the first couple corners as we all know how sensitive these tyres are with tiny operating windows & such.

    1. Bottas had 40 seconds to spare when he started his final lap. No reason he couldn’t have backed off and made a clean run.

    2. @roger-ayles Bottas should stop trying to ruin Hamilton’s lap in Q3 with this trick. It’s really becoming too obvious that’s he’s doing this on purpose.

      In Baku he could still use the excuse that he suddenly had to slow down because someone ahead of him slowed down (or rather he had closed to fast up on him) and that he couldn’t help ruining Hamilton’s time for a tow, but at some point it stops being a valid excuse.

  10. no surprise that in the eyes of the Hamilton loyalists he can never do any wrong!

    its never his fault & there defending is quite funny at times, especially as they complain bitterly about others doing some of the very same things while calling for penalties & trying to undermine anyone who dares challenge there beloved lewis.

    1. Is that you Bottas?

    2. Please learn the difference between “their” and “there”, and then actually *watch* the incident, and explain why Hamilton shouldn’t have assumed Bottas had a problem?

      Bottas was creeping around, off-line, two corners before the main straight.

      I’m having difficulties understanding why he was confused by Hamilton’s behavior.

  11. This kind of mess happens. It happened with Ferrari in Monza. I guess it is a pressure. Being behind Ferrari over 1 second per Q3 lap was a shock to everyone in Mercedes, including Hamilton. I advice Valtteri to talk to Lewis on private. Perhaps, more space must be between them when they leave the pits for the last run in Q3.

  12. Didn’t see why Hamilton should have stopped, that was some silly backing off. Fed up of drivers backing up at the end of the lap to get their perfect spot only to wreck other drivers behind them laps instead. If you want to slow but the car behind you wants past then tough luck. Funnily enough Riccardio has been ignoring “protocol” all year and passing anyone who tries to back him up. No rules were broken, stop crying in public and raise it with your teammate like an adult, in person.

    1. That’s why we love Ricciardo.

  13. Come on Goose, you don’t get to complain.

  14. Vettel at Monza and now Bottas in Singapore.

    These number 2 drivers are certainly getting whiny lately.

    1. and Lewis doesnt cry ever? give me a break, this was very clear that Hamilton spoiled Bottas lap

      1. Ok let assume Hamilton puts on the breaks. and then sits behind Bottas. At what point would Bottas have started his run, and how much longer would Hamilton have had to wait before starting his lap?

        How much of a gap would Hamilton have to leave to avoid turbulance from Bottas, and what would the clock ticking down have looked like whilst all this was going on.

        Given his stats to date on this circuit, would Bottas have finished better than Hamilton’s 2nd place? Is Bottas saying he would have got pole, or just done better than 5th.

        BTW Does anyone have any stats on the cars ahead of Bottas, eg his reason for running slow?

  15. It looks like the pressure from Leclerc is breaking a bit of Mercedes operation. What Hamilton did was not part of the plan, and the engineers should have kept the drivers informed: Bottas did not have trouble with the car and he was building the gap to warm the tires properly. If there had been communication, they would have 2-3 positions today.

  16. is it me or was bottas deliberatly sabotaging lewis out lap by slowing down excessively and thats why lewis passed him. not the first time he has been slowerr on the out lap. lewis is too wise to get caught out lile that more than once.

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