Valtteri Bottas announced that he ran over a squirrel on his way to pole position for tomorrow’s sprint qualifying race in Monza.
At this point in time, the Mercedes driver was on an out lap towards the end of the second quarter. He pulled right and passed Antonio Giovinazzi as they came out of Lesmo One.
When Bottas wanted to return to the racing line, he met the squirrel, who was running from the left side of the track to the right. The Mercedes driver reacted, bewitched to the left at Giovinazzi, but seemed to hit the squirrel with his right front wheel.
“Unfortunately I only ran over one squirrel,” he informed race engineer Riccardo Musconi. There was no obvious evidence of damage to his car from the video recordings of the session, although Bottas was unable to improve his time on the following lap.
“When I came in, I hit the squirrel with the right front tire, the right side of the car, look,” said Bottas on his lap.
Nicholas Latifi also had an up-close encounter with wildlife at the Monza circuit, which is located in a park. The Williams driver dodged when he came across a rabbit near the same point on the route, at the Lesmo Two exit.
Bottas set the fastest time in Q3 and achieved a one-two for Mercedes.
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Italian Grand Prix 2021
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