Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas was more than disappointed not to have finished on the podium after being taken out of the race late on by his compatriot Kimi Raikkonen.
Bottas made a good start and kept the Mercedes duo honest early on although it later transpired Hamilton was fuel-saving. A first-lap accident at turn two and a later off for Grosjean brought out the safety car twice in the first 15 laps to which Bottas was pleased with his strategy: “It was quite a strange race with lots of accidents and safety cars, and we managed to do a very good job as a team to give me a good shot at the podium.”
Heavier wear on the super-soft than the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel meant Bottas had to pit first for the slower option tyres but with the safety car periods it meant Bottas emerged from his stop in traffic which allowed Vettel to take second place when he pitted. Furthermore, Bottas was running in fifth behind Perez and Ricciardo with his fellow Finn Raikkonen also in hot pursuit of the podium.
Bottas made it through on Ricciardo first and then finally took Perez on the penultimate lap of the race at Sochi. However, on the final lap Raikkonen attempted a pass into the right-hander of turn four and misjudged the gap available causing a collision and retirement of Bottas from third place.
After the race, Bottas explained the incident: “I was running in P3 on the last lap and then I was hit from behind in Turn 4 and that was it. It’s difficult to describe the disappointment because the team worked so hard all week to get a good result, and then the result we feel like we deserved was lost with only one lap remaining. It’s a tough end to the weekend”.
Race stewards investigated the collision post-race and handed a 30-second time penalty to Kimi Raikkonen, who had limped home fifth, but that was of little consolation to Bottas and he will be looking to bounce back in two weeks at the United States Grand Prix.
