Valtteri Bottas recovered from a poor qualifying to finish second at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza at today’s Italian Grand Prix, helping the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team to a one-two victory.
Bottas was uncharacteristically off the pace in what was a rain soaked qualifying, but made up for that with a strong opening two laps of the race, battling with Scuderia Ferrari‘s Kimi Raikkonen to eventually grab second place behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas comes out of this race in the same position that he entered it in – he sits third in the World Championship, 41 points behind Sebastian Vettel, who has lost the lead of the championship to Hamilton for the first time this year after finishing third in today’s race.
The Finn was pleased with his performance, from both his own personal point of view and that of the team.
“Starting fourth, finishing second – I’m quite happy with that,” commented Bottas.
“What I’m really happy about is the one-two for the team! From my side it was a good race, even though I lost one position at the beginning. Luckily, I got it back quite quickly and could then overtake the Williams and the Force India.
After that the pace was great and I was really enjoying it – the car was so strong today. It was amazing to be on the podium. Monza is definitely one of the best – if not the best – podiums in Formula 1. It’s such a great atmosphere, so much noise, so many people – I wish everyone could experience it.”
Bottas knows that the Scuderia Ferrari drivers will be much closer in the next few races as they are at circuits that suit the Maranello based team.
“Looking forward, we know that we still have a lot of work to do, the races ahead will be a close battle with Ferrari.”
