Valtteri Bottas admits he "cried like a baby" after losing a formality drive to victory in Azerbaijan. The Finn was leading with three laps to go and looked certain to take the 25 points until he hit some debris and picked up a cruel puncture.
Bottas was forced to retire his Silver Arrow which he labelled as "one of the biggest disappoints" in his career. His run of winless races turned out to stretch through the rest of the season, with another retirement in Austria ending chances of winning from pole position. And team orders elsewhere, to give Lewis Hamilton the upper hand in his title fight with Sebastian Vettel, caused more setback.
In an interview for Mercedes, Bottas explains how he felt in Baku after the action calmed down.
"I thought it was one of my best races I have done. I didn't lead for a long time, but I managed to fight myself up to the lead of the race," Bottas said.
"I remember just before the moment I had such good confidence, and I felt everything was under control. I knew I’m going to take a little bit of luck and win the race but I hit some debris on the main straight which I didn’t see and had a puncture and the race finished there.”
“When I got back to the hotel I crashed completely, I dropped on my knees, and I was crying like a small baby. But then I got up and decided one failure is not going to put me down.”
In the height of the summer, Mercedes confirmed Bottas would continue to drive for the team in 2019. With Mercedes junior driver Esteban Ocon now carless, Bottas will be forced to turn the near misses into hits.
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