While most of the post-race chatter focussed on Lewis Hamilton’s comments about Ferrari, which he has now rescinded, for teammate Valtteri Bottas it was a case of another strategy gamble by Mercedes failing at the British GP.
The Finn capitalised on his teammate’s bad start to move up to second at the start behind Sebastian Vettel and would appear to be in a strong position after the first pit-stops, with better tyre life than the four-time world champion on his first stint.
That would allow him to push a little harder initially, but when the German pitted under the first of two rapid Safety Car periods, it was Bottas now the hunted by a driver on fresher rubber.
“I felt that there was definitely a possibility to go to the end,” Bottas said explaining the decision to stay out on Mediums. “Obviously, in practice, I didn’t do any long runs with the Mediums but from our calculations we should have been okay, but it wasn’t.”
In the closing laps, the 28-year-old would begin to struggle and at the first sign of vulnerability, Vettel pounced with a move up the inside at Brooklands to re-take the lead.
The situation would only get worse after that as both Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen then also made the same pass, dropping Bottas off the podium.
“Well, afterwards it is quite easy to say yes we should have pitted. At least to keep the position,” he said. “[We] took a risk to be first but ended up fourth so just five laps too much.”
On the fight with Vettel, Valtteri added: “I was really trying everything I could to stay ahead. I had to push like qualifying laps to keep ahead and for sure, then the tyres degrade quicker as well so… I tried my best but it was not enough.”
