Mercedes F1 driver Valtteri Bottas has ended 2019 season with a win in the Rallycircuit Cote d’Azur event at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Bottas with co-driver Marko Salminen drove the Citroen DS3 WRC in the Paul Ricard-based Rallycircuit Cote D’Azur to close his 2019 season on a sound note. The Finn was one of the five drivers to drive a WRC-spec car in the top-end category.
He won five of the nine stages run during the weekend to secure the win by exactly 50 second over Robert Consani (co-driver Salmon Valentin) in a Skoda Fabia R5 as Simon Gachet (co-driver Duffour Pascal) was third in a Citroen C3 R5.
Gachet leapfrogged Stephane Lefebvre (co-driver Baud Luice) in the final stage, with Lefebvre in a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup car. In fifth was F2 racer Dorian Boccolacci (co-driver Barral Florian) in a Skoda Fabia R5 with a penalty to his name.
The Frenchman finished third – on the podium – initially but a 20 seconds penalty dropped him to fifth just ahead of Durbec Thibault (co-driver Renucci Jacque-Julien) in a Citroen DS3 WRC, as it promoted Gachet to podium and Lefebvre to fourth.
Having finished fifth in a proper Artic Rally Lapland, Bottas’ continues to show his rallying skills albeit in a all-together different format of Rallycircuit at Paul Ricard. The Finn is trying get non-F1 mileage under his belt to keep his mind fresh towards the title.
With Rallycircuit done, Bottas’ 2019 season is completed – especially with all the announced plans. The Finn is now gearing up for a huge 2020 F1 season but the Finn is expected to take part in the Artic Rally Lapland again in January.
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