Australian GP: Valtteri Bottas 'mad' at himself over error
Valtteri Bottas says he will use his brush with the wall during the Australian Grand Prix as a learning experience
The Finn made a spectacular start to the race for Williams, making up five places on the first lap from 15th on the grid following a gearbox penalty, before charging his way through the field up to sixth.
However his initial progress was quickly undone, a brush with the wall on the outside of Turn 10 causing a puncture.
Bottas was able to get going again, ultimately finishing sixth, but was left to rue what might have been without the unscheduled stop.
"I'm quite mad at myself for the mistake," he said. "Not so happy about that. I guess I just need to learn from it. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do that kind of mistake again.
"I was pushing really hard because I saw that this race could be very good. Turned out I was pushing a bit too much.
"I was quite close to [Fernando] Alonso, and I went slightly wide. I just touched the wall. I was lucky to continue, I could make up positions and recover.
"In the end for us as a team, compared to last year, finally we were racing, which was great. But it's still too soon after the race. I'm a bit disappointed by the mistake and I need to make sure I don't do it again."
Bottas added that without the crash he would have finished higher than sixth place, and that his car was good enough to fight for a podium finish.
"If we had a good qualifying, a clean race, we had a car here to fight for the podium," he said.
"I haven't seen the result so I don't know, we need to analyse - definitely better [than sixth].
"I'm not so happy with myself, I need to learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again but the car was quick in the race. It was really cool, the team have done such a good job.
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About this article
| Series | Formula 1 |
| Drivers | Valtteri Bottas |
| Author | Edd Straw |
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