The first time Bottas looked like a world-beater

By:

Marcus Simmons

Mar 28, 2019, 12:50 PM

Valtteri Bottas's Australian Grand Prix win prompted Mercedes boss Toto Wolff to suggest that the "2008" version of his driver had returned. Here's the story of how Bottas first wowed the motorsport world and beat a future Formula 1 rival

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The crushing victory by Valtteri Bottas in the Australian Grand Prix was no surprise to those he worked with during his early career - in fact, it merely served to vindicate what they had always believed.

It also made Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff nostalgic for the first time since he encountered his future driver.

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Marcus Simmons

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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.