Bottas says Turn 1 lock-up led to first lap “mess” at Hungarian GP
Valtteri Bottas says a lock-up into t🀅he first corner snowballed into the first lap “mess” he endured during Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Bottas made a fast-start and looked to challenge polesitter Max Verstappen for the lead into Turn 1, but locked ♔up and lost momentum coming out of the corner, enabling Hamilton to pounce with a bold manoeuvre around the outside of Turn 3.
Valtteri Bottas says a lock-up into 🅘the first corner snowballed into the first lap “mess” he endured during Formula 1’s H🌜ungarian Grand Prix.
Bottas made a fast-start and looked to challenge polesitter Max Verstappen for the lead into Turn 1, but locked up and lost momentum com๊ing out of the corner, enabling Hamilton to pounce with a bold manoeuvre around the outside of Turn 3.
The Mercedes pair made sli✅ght contact, before a further brush followed on the run to Turn 4 with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, resulting in damage to Bottas’ front wing. The Finn ultimately pitted for a new nose and fell to the back of the field, before recovering to a lowly eighth on a two-stop strategy.
“It was tough, not what I expected, obviously far from it,” Bottas told Sky Sports♉ F1.
“After the first lap it was a bit of a mess and I knew that it was going to be tricky for sure. I tried everything I could but that’s how it goes somet𒉰imes.
Asked if there was anything he ♚could have done di♓fferently, Bottas replied: “Turn 1 I had a lock up and that was my mistake.
“I was trying to b🍰rake as late and as hard as I could. I was trying to get to the outside of Max but got a bit of a nick there with the lock-up on the front right, and with the flatspots I gai🍬ned a bit of understeer in the left hand corners.
“So in the middle of Turn 2 already I had some understeer and that made it tricky for Turn 3 when🦹 Lewis came and Charles came, and we had the contacts and lost a big piece of front wing.”
Bottas said he struggled to see Leclerc coming in h🥂is mirrors but was expecting an attack from behind after a poor cor𝓀ner exit out of Turn 3.
“I couldn’t really see him coming, I struggle🌊d to see him in the mirrors so that made 🐽it a bit more tricky,” he explained.
“I knew I had a bit run coming out of the corner so I knew somebody could be coming but it happened 🉐pretty quick.”
Bottas’ difficult day, combined with an eighth victory of the season for Hamilton, means he has 🌺fallen 62 points behind his teammate in the championship heading into F1’s summer break.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for wuqian0821.com around the world. Ofte🌞n reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the 🌳stories of the people who matter in the sport.
