Valtteri Bottas actually had a good starting position in Las Vegas, but after the first corner nothing worked for the Finn with a broken car
To stay on the current topic with Valtteri Bottas: The Finn’s Las Vegas Grand Prix was for the ass! The Alfa Romeo driver, who released a calendar featuring his naked backside a few days ago, only made it as far as the first corner of the race before his strong starting position was wiped out
Bottas had started the race from seventh on the grid, but then got caught up in the turmoil of the first corner when Fernando Alonso spun into his path and stopped backwards in front of him. The Finn had no way of avoiding him and dropped to the back of the field.
From there, however, there was no way forward for Bottas either, as he had also been hit in the rear by Sergio Perez during the incident at the start. “That damaged the diffuser pretty badly,” he says. “I saw it after the race and there were some significant parts missing. That explains a lot.”
Because after the blow, basically nothing worked for the Alfa Romeo driver. In the end, he saw the chequered flag in 17th place and last, 35 seconds behind the car in front.
According to team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Bottas lost more than 20 points of downforce. “This made the car practically undriveable,” he says. “Valtteri still brought it home, but it was no longer possible to salvage a good result. It’s a shame, because his race pace was actually good, as we saw earlier in the weekend. “
It will therefore be difficult for Alfa Romeo to improve its position in the Constructors’ Championship. Before the final race of the season, they are in ninth place, but are already five points behind AlphaTauri – they have only scored that many points in one race once this season. A good result in Las Vegas, on the other hand, would still have given them a chance.
Bottas is annoyed: “We had a good opportunity and I had the feeling that the car was running well for me here. What kind of pace we would have had remains unclear due to the damage. But what can you do? That’s just how it goes sometimes.”
The Finn was also hampered by an upset stomach at the weekend. “That wasn’t great,” he says. “I got an upset stomach a few days ago and it got worse and worse until last night. Today was better, but it still wasn’t the most fun weekend for me. “
