Phil wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2017 2:52 pm
Congratulations Valtteri Bottas! What a weekend, what a drive, what a win! Well deserved.
Hamilton had a really weird race. He demonstrated he had pace, but once closing in, he had overheating problems. Not sure if Bottas suffered similarly but to a lesser degree when coming up on back markers. Vettel/Ferrari clearly demonstrated though that they have no issues driving close at this race... did Mercedes get the cooling slightly wrong this race or did they just have an issue on Hamiltons race? That gap in the end is shocking - did he just turn down the car and limp it home in 4th?
As I see it, it is more of a Hamilton's thing.Yes Bottas lost a lot more time behind backmarkers than Vettel, but I think this is due to his inexperience and maybe a bit of anxiety not to crash.
Remember in Bahrain when he was in front of Vettel he was constantly changing his braking line because Vettel was distracting him in the mirrors.It's normal, the lad is not used to race winning pressure, he almost screwed up here in Russia (when he went off some 12 laps before the chequered flag) but otherwise it was brilliant performance.I think this race will affect him in a good psychologically manner.
Vettel extended his lead, so technically he was a winner coming out of this race.But, these extra 7 points were very tempting and eventually losing them could turn out to be crucial.But, this is IF.Brilliant racing by him as well.