In the round-up: Valtteri Bottas scored his breakthrough rally victory last weekend.
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
My first rally win 🏆
Co-driven by @SalminenMarko 🇫🇮Thanks for all the fun @PaulRicardTrack @RallyCircuit and thanks for the top car @PH__Sport 🚙💨#VB77 #Rally #offseason
📸 Bastien Roux pic.twitter.com/6iXn9ALdjX— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) December 8, 2019
Our new circuit lights are ready for Races Of Malaysia! #RoadToMalaysia #RacesOfMalaysia pic.twitter.com/ovnvcXM5Hv
— Sepang Circuit (@sepangcircuit) December 8, 2019
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Rallycircuit Côte d'Azur 2019 (eWRC-Result)
Bottas and co-driver Marko Salminen won while Formula 2 driver Dorian Boccolacci and his co-driver Florian Barral took fifth.
W Series Teams Up With Rokit Phones In A Major Multi-Year Sponsorship Agreement (W Series)
"W Series has signed a major multi-year sponsorship deal with global telecoms company Rokit Phones – the first major partnership agreement since W Series was launched in October 2018. "
WEC: 31 cars for round four in bahrain (FIA)
"After winning in China last month, Rebellion Racing head to the Middle East on a high note but know that a repeat of their victory will be made more difficult due to the changes made under the success handicap rules."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
Comment of the day
As Pietro Fittipaldi eyes a chance to break into F1, are we seeing too many well-connected relations at the upper end of motor sport?
Please, not another relation of a previous grand Prix driver. It just proves that money and connections mean more than racing talent. I refuse to believe all these sons of racing drivers are the best drivers in the world.
@John-h
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Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Myles Woerner, Samuel Tatipamula and Julien!
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On this day in F1
- On this day in 1993 Ayrton Senna appeared before the World Motor Sports Council, charged with punching Eddie Irvine at the Japanese Grand Prix
Image: Valtteri Bottas via Twitter
Destian Light
9th December 2019, 0:44
Good job! Man of many talents.
Chaitanya
9th December 2019, 4:22
I hope MotoGP uses that Malaysian GP track for a night race.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
9th December 2019, 7:10
:D What kinda rally was this?
Every other competitor was French. Bottas and co-driver destroyed them, but then they would, considering he is a world class driver facing local competition.
Is there any footage of this?
Jere (@jerejj)
9th December 2019, 7:53
@jureo At least the Circuit Paul Ricard YT-channel has some footage of the event. For example, here’s onboard footage of Bottas over an entire stage:
https://youtu.be/1-IfpI9qHAw
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
9th December 2019, 8:32
I found it aswell.
This is an excellent representation, how an F1 driver drives a “regular” car.
6 minutes, without mistakes, brilliant, hitting every apex, every rotation is well judged, trail braking, keeping the nose gripping, collecting the rear with minimum time loss.
Like watching poetry.
F1 drivers should have to attend events like this, just so we can appreciate skill that goes in to their art.
John
9th December 2019, 9:16
How Botas drives you mean. Not all F1 drivers would take to Rally so well.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
9th December 2019, 12:29
Yea you do have a point. It is a totally different skill to driving an F1 car and lots of f1 drivers could well not even be close to the average rally driver.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th December 2019, 7:47
So Sepang got the floodlighting infrastructure in place only after it had stopped hosting an F1 race, LOL.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
9th December 2019, 8:05
Re COTD i guess you might (might as in not sure) be wrong there. I mean something as far from a human’s “natural” skillset as motorracing, there really probably isn’t such a thing as ‘natural talent’. what we perceive as talent is most likely just a very thoroughly learnt skill At a rather young age that has almost become instinctive. and Who is more likely to spend a lot of time in karts at a very young age already…?
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
9th December 2019, 8:06
sorry didn’t mean to reply
Phylyp (@phylyp)
9th December 2019, 8:36
In that respect, I’m happy to see that Sepang has life after F1 and have moved onwards, and are hopefully successful.
It’s just a shame that F1 doesn’t race there anymore.
GeeMac (@geemac)
9th December 2019, 11:23
I’m not entirely sure whether I would have enjoyed F1 at Sepang “under the lights”. Floodlights have their benefits, for example when you want to show off a magnificent 21st century city skyline (Singapore) or you want to hide the fact a circuit is in the middle of nowhere (Sakhir). Sepang is neither of those things and sits in quite nice looking countryside… so it doesn’t really need the lights.
frood19 (@frood19)
9th December 2019, 12:01
I think the night races add a little something e.g.the sparks and the way it changes how the liveries look. Also it benefits Bahrain for the same reasons @geemac says it’s bad for sepang – it means you don’t have to see the uninspiring desert countryside!
Jeffrey Powell
9th December 2019, 14:48
Botas obviously enjoys driving in the rally style , I know he has taken part in other more traditional Finnish events up against experienced drivers with some sucess. Many,Many, Many years ago F1 drivers were more experienced in driving conventional racing saloons , these of course were far closer to their F1 cars in dynamics. And of course they could transfer their considerable skills to international rallies if they were brave enough. Enter Jim Clark genius, unfortunately those days are gone forever.
erikje
9th December 2019, 22:42
This Paul Ricard circuit has real walls and is messy but nice. Maybe a thought for next year to spice things up there.
It needs a lot of spicing as host of the most boring race of the century