Bottas ‘weekend in Austin was at risk after being forced to take his third engine penalty in four races for exceeding his driveline component allocation amid Mercedes’ ongoing battle with reliability issues.
After qualifying, he started ninth behind the Red Bulls and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton and was only able to recover to sixth place, behind Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren.
With Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the podium on either side of second-placed Hamilton, Red Bull was able to reduce Mercedes ‘lead in the constructors’ championship for five remaining races to 23 points.
Despite Bottas’ efforts to advance in the race, Wolff rejected the suggestion that the Finn lose points that could later prove costly to Mercedes.
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“Valtteri has not lost any points,” said Wolff.
“It was always very clear that from his starting position it would be difficult to get back to the top because of the engine penalty. He did a brilliant job in the last race and I think he did very well here [Austin].
“So we just have to persevere as a team, both drivers have to score and I have no doubt that Valtteri will not only make a strong contribution to the constructors ‘championship, but also to the drivers’ championship.”
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Bottas lost a lot of time behind Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri in the first stint and admitted that it would always be difficult to make up ground.
“It was difficult, as I expected,” explained Bottas. “What made it even more difficult in the first stint was standing behind the AlphaTauris because I couldn’t get through.
“Of course that cost me a lot of time and unfortunately there was no help with safety cars or anything like that. So I’ve made some progress, but pretty slowly. “
The post “Valtteri has not lost any points” – Wolff defends Botta’s Austin F1 racing matches first appeared on monter-une-startup.
