Hill on Bottas: 'Maybe he just didn't want trouble'

Both Valtteri Bottas (sixteenth) and Max Verstappen (twentieth) had to start from the back in Russia. The Dutchman passed the Finn very quickly and ended the race in second place, while Bottas finished fifth.

Poor defence from Bottas

Verstappen was able to quickly catch Bottas at the start of the race, despite the Mercedes driver starting four spots ahead of the Dutchman. As early as the sixth lap, Bottas was overtaken by Verstappen, but the Finn seemed to make little effort to make things difficult for the Red Bull Racing driver.

Damon Hill also saw Bottas' unconvincing defence and let it be known in front of the Sky Sports F1 cameras after the race."You can't get around the fact that the guy who came second started the race behind him and his teammate won the race," quoted Motorsportweek.com the 1996 world champion.

Gift from Bottas

Hill would have thought Bottas would have put up a tough defence against Verstappen in the team interest. "He just seemed to wave him through," Hill is surprised. "Maybe he just didn't want any trouble. It doesn't look like he was racing. It was almost a present to Max." A few laps before the end, Bottas was only fourteenth, but by changing his tyres at the right time, he still ended up fifth.