Valtteri Bottas admits he is “absolutely heartbroken” after having victory snatched away from him at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Bottas led the race with three laps to go when he ran over a bit of debris and got a rear right tyre puncture to end his victory hopes.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken. It hurts a lot. But this is racing; some days are good, some days are bad – and some days are very bad. A small piece of debris destroyed my entire weekend. We had a good race until the puncture.”
Bottas jumped Sebastian Vettel during the safety car period and looked on course for his first win of the season but feels the car was in a good shape before then.
“The car felt really good and we were fast. I thought I had everything under control on the Safety Car restart, but then suddenly my tyre exploded. I didn’t see the debris and I couldn’t feel it until the tyre blew.”
While Bottas is disappointed with the last laps, he was pleased it was Lewis Hamilton who was the beneficiary of his problem.
“It was really close the last couple of races, so it’s good that our team won today, but I’m obviously still very disappointed. I’ll try again in two weeks.”
