Despite finishing in fifth place at Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix and dropping back further behind Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship, Valtteri Bottas believes that he is still in the running in the 2017 championship fight.
Valtteri Bottas refuses to rule himself out of championship fight
Prior to a safety car in Belgium, Bottas looked set to secure a sixth consecutive podium for Mercedes, however, a poor restart saw him drop back to fifth with only ten laps to go, meaning that Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen finished in third and fourth.
As a result of this, Bottas is now 41 points away from Sebastian Vettel in the championship with eight races left of 2017 but still remains confident that he can challenge for the title: “If I perform well because it is eight races with a big amount of points,” he said.
“The guys in front of me in the championship haven’t had any DNF, hopefully of course not for us, but maybe it can happen. But I don’t think that way. I don’t let those negative things come to my mind,” the Finn added.
As Bottas is beginning to drop further away from Vettel and Bottas in the championship, it is likely that Mercedes will begin to employ team orders in races in order to maximise its chances of winning both titles once again this season. To this, Bottas responded with a partially understanding opinion: “For sure at some point I understand if the team wants to go for the championship and really make sure that at least one of the guys wins but it’s a bit early,”
“We need to go race by race and every race there are different situations.”
Bottas joined Formula 1 in 2012 and previously raced for Williams, with his best season coming in 2014 when he secured fourth in the Drivers’ Championship. Following the retirement of Nico Rosberg at the end of 2016, Bottas joined Mercedes and has shown that he has more than capable at the team, winning at Russia and Austria and being the driver with the best form before the summer break. It is expected that he will re-sign with the Silver Arrows in the coming weeks to stay for a second season.
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