Luck once again wasn’t on Valtteri Bottas’ side as the Finn retired with an engine issue during the Eifel Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver was holding teammate Lewis Hamilton at bay after just converting pole into the lead in the opening few corners.
But from there a series of events ultimately wrecked Bottas’ afternoon which ended with his first retirement since Brazil last year.
“Yeah, unlucky, what can I say?” he said back in the paddock.
“During the Virtual Safety Car I started to lose power and it never recovered. It was quite a big loss of power, something to do with the power unit. I don’t have any details yet. Unlucky. It was good fun until then.”
Indeed, as mentioned, Bottas showed some bravery as he somehow wrestled back the lead from Hamilton into Turn 2, moments after it appeared he had lost the run to Turn 1.
“It was a great start, we had a good battle,” said the Finn.” There was no way I was going to let it be easy for him so I am glad I could maintain the lead.
“Obviously, later on, I had the lock-up into Turn 1 so I lost the position, but it meant I stopped early on the new tyres and they started to feel pretty good so I had no doubt I could have carried good pace and probably undercut.”
That opportunity though would have also been lost when Hamilton and Verstappen pitted under the VSC and emerged ahead.
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But it was the retirement which will ultimately hurt more as it leaves Bottas 69 points behind Hamilton with six races to go.
“Yeah, of course, we need to see how the race finishes,” he said acknowledging it was a setback in his F1 title bid.
“If the current positions stay the same (which they did), then it will be tricky no doubt, but you never know.”
