Valtteri Bottas achieved his best ever race result and a second consecutive podium in an eventful British Grand Prix today. Felipe Massa was forced to retire after getting caught in a multi-car accident at the start that red flagged the race for nearly an hour. After initially moving from 14th to ninth before the restart, Valtteri continued to make great progress with a brilliant drive through the field into an eventual second position.
Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering: It’s a slightly mixed weekend. It’s a great result for Valtteri and he showed incredible race craft throughout the whole race. You couldn’t ask for anything more from the driver; he changed his race around with those overtakes in the first stint. It’s really disappointing for Felipe as we clearly have a great car and could have had a double podium, but he will rebuild and has the support to bounce back. Everybody is pushing and everybody is motivated in the team, and as a result we are moving forward and that is the main aim. I am really proud of everything that we have done and a big thank you to everyone at the team here and in Grove for all the hard work.
Valtteri Bottas: We knew that this race would be good fun. We knew we had a quick car and maybe it surprised us it was so quick. The first stint we went through the field fast and that needed a bit of risk. I am so happy for the team, they have worked on race pace and it shows.
We were thinking about points today not the podium, and the strategy guys did a great job. I really felt for Felipe today in his 200th race, and it was so nice of him to come to the podium with the team; I really appreciated that. We are a stronger team than we were in the first few races and it won’t be easy to stay near the top but we are doing a great job of it at the moment.
Felipe Massa: It has been a really difficult weekend. It was a bad start but after that I could catch up everyone and pass cars in the first few corners. The car felt great. Then there was the accident. Kimi came across the track and I never really had a chance to miss him, and sadly the damage was too much to continue. Luckily I turned as it could have been a worse accident. I hope Kimi is ok but it’s a weekend to forget for me personally; not the 200th Grand Prix I had planned.
