Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas felt pain in his knees after F1 Mexico GP crash as he is to take up the barrier topic in briefing, while Ferrari and Red Bull Racing are gearing up for a fight.
The crash for Bottas in F1 Mexico GP at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in qualifying was unorthodox in that the protective material along the barriers did the majority of the damage to his car, which Mercedes has to repair without minimal or no penalties.
The crash spoilt all attempts to snatch pole from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who later had his pole stripped from him, for not slowing down under the yellows. The FIA initially did not investigate but the Dutchman’s post-race comments eventually led to a penalty.
Following the medical center visit, Bottas later explained the errors that led to the crash, as he rued the placement of the techpro barrier which he hit while skating around the final turn, after prior contact with the wall early. He had heavy front-end damage.
Bottas noted that he will take this topic in the next F1 drivers’ briefing. “I went a bit deep in the last run in the last corner and there was a bit of understeer and I went wider than I wanted,” explained the Finn. “The traction caught me on the wall.
“It is a pity as it was a pretty good lap until then. It is really annoying. I can feel my right knee but that’s it. I hit the techpro barrier. We should avoid these barriers [in such a place]. It is not ideal. I would have been fine if we had continued how it was.
“I will bring it up in the next drivers briefing.” The extent of damage to the car is unknown, although team principal Toto Wolff is confident of the fact that the car was repairable within the rules of parc ferme and not even change the gearbox, so as to avoid any penalty.
“[I am] 90 per cent confident that we can fix it without a penalty,” said Wolff. “We should get away with it. They are rebuilding the car now. We have not seen any damage at the gearbox. We will see at a later stage if there is no leading and everything’s ok.”
Across the Mercedes garage, Hamilton was also hurt from Bottas incident, as the yellow flags ruined his flying lap, which he thought would have been good enough for third – better than what they anticipated from the weekend due to their disadvantage.
“I think third place was possible but the last sector with the Bottas crash, it all went apart there,” said Hamilton to TV media. “I am generally happy with the day, it is generally hard to keep up with others, we knew that it will be difficult this weekend coming here.
“I gave it everything and it wasn’t enough for pole but I think I got everything out of the car, and it puts us in a fighting position for the race. The Red Bull look quite good on their long run, so it will be interesting to see whose tyres last long.
“Tyres will be the game and our hope will be to be with Ferrari and Red Bull.” With Mercedes behind and Verstappen losing pole, it put Ferrari on the front-row with Charles Leclerc on pole alongside Sebastian Vettel – a place the Monegasque wouldn’t like.
The last time they had a similar situation was at Sochi, which didn’t work well. The tow factor will be there in Mexico as well. “I am very happy, especially in the first run of Q3, I think the car there was very good,” said Leclerc.
“In the second run of Q3 I asked for a bit more front and it was just too much for the last sector, so I lost all the time I made up in the first sector. We have got good straight-line speed, which I hope we can take advantage of at the start.”
It will be interesting with two Ferraris at the front and others taking tow from them. “Overall I think it was good,” said Vettel. “But unfortunately in Q3 on the first run I had a mistake and the second run I was caught out by the yellow flags, so not ideal.
“I didn’t peak when it was time to peak in the sessions, especially in Q3. But other than that, the car felt good. I think there was more in hand. We’ll see how everything gets going. I think everybody opted to start on the medium tires. We’ll take it from there.”
Post the penalty, Verstappen was left disappointed after a surprising performance in qualifying, where the Dutchman thought Red Bull gained from Friday to Saturday. Teammate Alexander Albon, in fifth, felt the same as he thought the car had more.
“It was OK, the car was definitely quicker than P5, so I am a bit disappointed but after FP2, and the rain in FP3, I kind of started from FP1,” he said. “Obviously if I had a clean run, I would have been able to improve a bit more but nevertheless we are in the mix.”
Here’s what the stewards stated to penalise Max Verstappen
Mexico GP: Verstappen beats Ferrari duo to pole as Bottas has late crash
The story was written by Duncan Leahy and edited by Darshan Chokhani