Valtteri Bottas declared his first rallying experience as “very good” after finishing fifth in the Arctic Lapland Rally in Finland.
The Mercedes driver would drive a WRC-spec Ford Focus with renowned co-driver Timo Rautiainen and managed to win the eighth stage of the event set in his snowy homeland, after an unsurprisingly steady start.
“It was a very good overall experience,” he told Finnish broadcaster MTV. “Our goal was to get to the finish and we did it. We learned a lot of lessons and the pace grew all the time.
“Everything went as planned. We were able to avoid the biggest mistakes, although there were a few situations.”
Bottas finished six places ahead of another F1 name fans will know in former Ferrari driver Mika Salo, indicating how impressive his debut event was.
Now though, his focus will return to the day job with pre-season testing getting underway with Mercedes on February 18th in Barcelona.