Hamilton's fastest lap a surprise, says Bottas

Valtteri Bottas admits he was surprised by Lewis Hamilton’s effort to claim the point for the fastest lap of the British Grand Prix on Sunday, as his team-mate was running on 32-lap-old hard tyres.

The Mercedes drivers were the only major contenders for the win at Silverstone, with Bottas starting on pole and Hamilton in second. They exchanged P1 more than once before a safety car period hampered the Finn’s efforts, allowing Hamilton to secure his seventh win of the campaign.

Not only did the Brit win, but he also claimed an extra point for running the fastest lap, and on the slowest tyres no less.

“I tried pretty hard but I didn’t have a really full battery level at that moment,” Bottas revealed.

“Even though with the mode I was running the lap before it should have been.

“It’s something we actually raised up in the meeting that can be a lot better in the races so we really have some margin to go for the fastest lap to charge the pack more to really deploy more. I feel I lost a bit there.

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“I was surprised that with the hard tyre at the end he [Hamilton] could do a lap like that. The hard tyre was very solid. There was not much I had: A bit of a lock-up into the last couple of corners so lost maybe a tenth there.”

After Hamilton’s victory and extra point for the fastest lap, he is now 39 points ahead of Bottas in the 2019 championship race.

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