Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was relieved to keep his F1 championship lead after a troubled Bahrain GP where his pace was hampered by a plastic.
There were few calls of visor getting stuck in brake ducts of some F1 cars but Bottas faced a unique issue where a plastic bag stuck on his front wing, which slowed his pace down in the Bahrain GP for him to end up far behind Lewis Hamilton.
Both the Mercedes drivers were already on the backfoot with Ferrari’s inroads as Charles Leclerc led Sebastian Vettel. While Leclerc was out of reach, Hamilton stayed on Vettel’s tail and eventually went past him as the German spun which ended his chances.
Hamilton, in fact, dropped behind Bottas at the start but fought back to take track position. The Finn then started losing pace. It is unclear when exactly but post-race Bottas revealed that a plastic bag stuck on his front wing which disrupted the airflow.
It meant, he fell far behind Hamilton, who took on Vettel to eventually win the race after Leclerc’s issue. Bottas came through to second which helped him keep the championship lead by one point – that extra point he gained through fastest lap in Australia.
“They are points that will count at the end of the championship, so I agree that fastest lap made the difference,” he said to the media. “Obviously, now, at this point, it doesn’t matter much but what matters is at the end of the championship.
“We’ve seen many championships finishing with very small margins. It was a bit out of reach with the strong pace of Ferrari, they got it, but for sure while there is this opportunity it’s going to be important.
“But anyways, even though it felt a super-difficult race I’m happy to be getting this amount of points because in the end, consistency is going to be the key.” Reflecting on the the weekend and the Bahrain GP race, Bottas added:
“There were many points that were very interesting and exciting in the race and good fun – but then there were points in that race where I felt quite lonely. I didn’t see anyone. I had a great start to the race, I managed to get into P2.
“But then on Lap 1 into Turn 1 I think the wind caught me up a bit, I braked a bit too late into Turn 1, trying to keep my position, and I lost two places – so back to fourth place. I think Ferrari, ultimately, was very, very strong.
“During the times with the wind I ended-up doing some mistakes, like I think some other drivers did as well, and it was extremely difficult to keep the rhythm – but yeah, there were some good battles and so on.
“I managed to save the engine at some point when there was no threat from behind and a big gap in front. Also, I had a plastic bag stuck on my front wing at some point, which was costing performance.
“So not the perfect race but in the end, luck was on our side and we’ll definitely take it – especially me, after all the bad luck last year. So, obviously hard luck for Charles, he was very strong – but y’know, it will come for him.
“I had to wait for more than 80 races for my first win, so I’m sure it’s going to be OK.” As mentioned earlier, after two races, Bottas has 44 points to his name with Hamilton on 43 while there is gap for third with Verstappen on 27.
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