Renewed confidence aids Bottas bid to overhaul Vettel
Valtteri Bottas has firmly set his sights on Sebastian Vettel’s second place in the World Drivers’ Championship now that his confidence in the handling of his Mercedes returned in the Japanese Grand Prix.
After admitting to a slump in form recently, Bottas finished a close fourth at Suzuka – just failing to beat Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull in the closing stages for a place on the podium.
As Vettel racked up his second DNF in three races, Bottas has now closed to within 13 points of the Ferrari team leader with four races remaining.
“The race was good, I think the weekend overall was a lot better – I felt better in the car and I had the fastest lap in the race, which is always good,” said Bottas. “So looking forward to Austin, and I just want to win again. I’ll keep pushing.
“[Second place] is definitely a good target. It’s not like fighting for the championship win, things are looking pretty good for Lewis, but I’ll do everything I can to get second.”
Bottas said he simply ran out of laps to make a move on Ricciardo, having earlier compromised his race to allow teammate Hamilton past him on his alternate strategy after taking a grid penalty for a gearbox change.
“I got very close [to Ricciardo],” rued Bottas. “The pace was really good in the end, and that was what we expected with the strategy choice, so there was opportunities at the end, but not enough laps left. Which was a shame, I think it was a pretty decent race. Fourth place is not that much reward for that.
“I’ve definitely learned a lot this year, and learned something from this weekend, and I’m going to focus on these late few races and make the most out of them.”
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