Bottas opens up on snake encounters and an eerie jungle night during epic Singapore bike ride
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Kieran is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs and feature content across the F1 calendar. An NQJ-qualified journalist with more than a decade of experience, he has previously written for publications including MailOnline, the Manchester Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press.
Valtteri Bottas has revealed he encountered snakes, a dog that chased him and even a group of cows during his remarkable bike ride from Sepang to Singapore.
The Finnish driver completed the lengthy journey after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, swapping Formula 1 machinery for a bike and travelling through rural roads and jungle on his way to the Singapore Grand Prix.
While Bottas said the experience was memorable, he admitted some close encounters with wildlife initially left him a little uneasy.
“I saw some snakes, which I was a little bit worried about, but actually, they were pretty chill,” Bottas explained. “They were just doing their thing.
“I saw one cobra. I saw one python just crossing the path in front of me. Saw some of those big lizards that you’d also see here. One was on the path. I had to jump over it with a bike because I saw it, like, last minute.”
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Bottas calls night ride through jungle ‘most epic part’
Bottas also got chased by a dog and got briefly held by up by cows occupying a narrow track on his epic bike ride from Sepang to Singapore. But the standout moment came after darkness fell, with Bottas riding through the jungle using only his bike lights.
“The wildest part was the riding at night in the jungle,” he said. “The noise in there is like... then your mind starts to play games about what is out there. Who knows what is out there, but then you just need to crack on and keep going. Riding with your lights at night, that was probably the most epic part.”
Bottas revealed he did his two longest rides on the Monday and Tuesday after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, completing around 100 miles on both days. He did a shorter bike ride on Wednesday, so not to compromise his recovery ahead of practice for the Singapore Grand Prix on Friday
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