Bottas: Hamilton was “faultless” in Belgian F1 GP

Valtteri Bottas has described Lewis Hamilton’s performance at the Belgian Grandꦛ Prix as “faultless” after being beaten once again to the Formula 1 race win at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Finnꦚ started the race from second place but he was unable to get past his team-mate with th🅷e use of the tow down the Kemmel Straight on the opening lap.
A lackadaisical Safety Car restart f🌟rom Bottas meant he wasn’t able to prไessure Hamilton for the lead, meaning he remained second ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen for the rest of the race.
After a run of difficult races, Bottas was happy not to have encountered any of the issues which compromised his recent races such as poor starts 🌊in Hungary and Spain, or a tyre puncture at the British Grand Prix.
“I think Lewis was faultless today and yesterday,” Bottas♏ said. “There are more points for grabs next weekend. At least it was a clean weekend for me, with no big issues, but I def🍒initely want more race wins, so I’m just happy there’s another opportunity next weekend.”
Reflecting on his bꦅest chance to pass Hamilton at the start, Bottas admitted he positioned his car perfectly meaning the Finn couldn’t🗹 make the most of the slipstream down into Les Combes on Lap 1.
“Of course the start would have been a big opportunity, but Lewis played it pretty well, he wasn’t too fast out of Turn One, so I couꦉldn’t have a run to get him,” Bottas added. “Also, today, there was a tailwind going into Turn 5, so there was a bit less of a tow effect.
“The same thing on the re-start, I just couldn’t catch him on the straights, so thos🅘e we🎐re the main opportunities. Otherwise, with the same car and Lewis driving pretty much mistake-free, it was tricky, but I tried.”
In the first stint, there was an interesting radio exchange between Bo🦹ttas and his race engineer, Riccardo Musconi over the use of the overtไake button.
Bottas: “We have one push, no?"
Musconi: "We do but we💜 agreed not to use it against each other..🌺."
Bottas: "I never heard that!"
When asked after the race about it, Bottas said: “Actually I had no clue about that, maybe th🃏ey said it but I don’t recall it."

With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of our unbia🥀sed reporting.