P3 'disappointing' as Bottas rues engine 'gremlin' in Verstappen chase

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Third place was "disappointing" for Valtteri Bottas at the Portuguese Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Finn held on to the lead from pole and soaked up some early pressure from both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at Portimao.

But after being passed by his teammate and then by the Red Bull shortly after rejoining from his only pit-stop, Bottas was unhappy after conceding he was slower than the two cars he was battling.

“Disappointing," he said summing up his race. "When you start from the pole position, you have only one target for the race and that is to win the race. it didn’t happen today, so I’m disappointed.

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“I don’t really know in the first stint why I didn’t have the pace; I felt like everything in terms of the restart, everything was good from my side but I could see quite quickly in the race with the mediums I didn’t have pace like Lewis and Max had, and I have no idea why.

“It was better on the hard tyre [after the pit-stop]. At some point I was catching Max, then I had an issue with one sensor and I started to lose power, so I lost like five seconds to Max and that was it."

Asked what cause the temporary drop in performance, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff explained: "The problem was we had a little gremlin in some engine software that we wanted to eradicate and that did just the opposite.

"That is something that we have to fix in our software."

Still, with Hamilton taking his second win of the season and Mercedes extending their Constructors' Championship lead, the Austrian was satisfied.

"We had a good top speed on the straights today," Wolff confirmed. "The setup we chose was the right one. A little to the detriment of downforce and drag, but quick on the straight and that worked well.

“The car was strong yesterday, which is a positive development but it's hard to say today. I think both teams are on an equal footing, and you have to take P1 and P3 with the fastest lap."

 

         

 

 

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