F1 News

Bottas on title scrap: Every opportunity will be key

Bottas on title scrap: "Every opportunity will be key"

17-05-2019 14:08
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

After a disappointing 2018, Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has been a better driver than ever this season, taking two wins and three P2's in the opening five races, and the Finn knows that he'll need every single point he can get if he wants to win the drivers' championship.

Even though it is early, the constructors' championship already seems out of sight for Ferrari, with the Italians trailing Mercedes by a whopping 96 points in just five races. 

Bottas could have extended his championship lead in Barcelona after an impressive qualifying to put him on pole position, but a rocky start to the race on Sunday saw teammate Lewis Hamilton run away with the race win, as the Brit also retook the championship lead.

“For now, [the title battle is] between me and Lewis, but it's a massively long season,” Bottas told Formula1.com when asked about this year's title scrap.

“There’s many teams that, especially at some tracks, are very close and it's going to be a big development race between teams all through the season.

“But if it's going to be me and Lewis, every single opportunity is going to be key. That's why [the race in Spain] for me was annoying. I felt I worked hard for this weekend and for the qualifying… to be on pole, on this circuit where it means a lot and I lost it at the start. But that’s life and there's 16 opportunities to go. That's plenty. I look forward to it, Monaco next and we'll see.”

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