Valtteri Bottas took a brilliant third place at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, making it two visits to the podium in two years at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, after the Finn made a one stop strategy work when others failed.
After starting the race on Ultrasoft tyres, Bottas moved to the soft tyres at the perfect moment, and with pit stops working to perfection for the Williams Martini Racing team in Montreal, the Finn was able to get ahead of the two Red Bull Racing machines of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, as well as Kimi Raikkonen in the Scuderia Ferrari to secure the well deserved third place.
“I’m very happy with what we achieved as a team today. It’s a shame with what happened to Felipe, but this gives us a big motivation boost for the next few races.
“I think today shows that we are a strong team who can deliver good results. Our strategy was great and our pit stop was really good, yet again.
After a disappointing time in Monaco during the last round of the 2016 Formula One championship, where the Finn ended the race out of the points, this was the perfect tonic for the Oxfordshire based team. Bottas was extremely happy with the result, and is confident they can continue to make performance gains as they head to the next race in Baku.
“I’m really pleased with today and looking forward to the next race,” said Bottas.
The Montreal track is clearly one that suits Bottas and the FW38, and could be just the boost in performance they need to see them return to the sort of form they were producing in 2015, when podium visits were a more regular occurrence.
