Bottas doesn't "want to think about" points gap with Hamilton
F1 News
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has admitted he doesn't "want to think about" the points gap with teammate and championship leader Lewis Hamilton, as the Brit leads Botas by 62 points after 12 races.
Bottas started the season in great form, winning two of the first four races and leading the championship at that stage. He gained the nickname 'Bottas 2.0' because of his new bearded look, which came paired with a much more aggressive Bottas on the track.
However, in recent races, the Finn's form has dipped. After retiring in Germany with a hard crash on the wet Hockenheimring, the 29-year-old threw away his Hungarian Grand Prix in the first lap by damaging his front wing.
While not having won since Baku, Hamilton went on to win six more races, meaning the 34-year-old leads the table with 250 points. The 62-point gap is something Bottas would prefer not to think about.
“It is a big gap, much bigger than I would like to have but that is the gap now. There is not much else I can do and I don’t really want to think about it too much at the moment,” Bottas told Crash.net.
“We will still go through everything about this race [in Hungary] with the team and then move on with many races to go but obviously it is a bit of a tricky situation.”
After qualifying in P2, ahead of Hamilton, Bottas disappointingly finished in eighth while the five-time champion landed a late overtake to win the race.
Nine races left for Bottas to make up the deficit to Hamilton, although the in-form Max Verstappen sits just seven points behind Bottas in the table...