Valtteri Bottas was hoping for a better result during the Russian Grand Prix than fourth, especially after starting the race and running the early laps of the race in the second position.
The Williams Martini Racing driver felt the aggressive early pit stop strategy was the right one to take, but was passed on track by Lewis Hamilton shortly after they both made their stops, and was then jumped by the later stopping Kimi Raikkonen to drop off the podium positions and into fourth.
After that, it was a lonely race for Bottas at the Sochi Autodrom, but the Finn felt it was important for Williams to score a good haul of points in Russia after three relatively under-performing races.
“The beginning of the race was pretty good and we managed to defend against some of the quicker cars behind,” said Bottas. “I think being aggressive with the early pit stop was good but unfortunately the cars with more pace managed to get through, and at the end of the race there wasn’t much happening for me.
“All-in-all the team has done a good job this weekend. It’s positive to get a lot of points for Williams. There’s definitely progress, this is a good track for us so that helped, but we just need to keep improving. I definitely had more in mind today than fourth so we need to keep pushing.”
