Bottas refusing to give up on championship

Valtteri Bottas insists he is not giving up on the Formula 1 championship quite yet, but understands how fortunate he will have to be to overcome runaway leader Lewis Hamilton.

The Finn won the last race in Japan, with Mercedes subsequently winning the constructors’ championship, but it still left him 64 points adrift of his team-mate in the title rankings with four races remaining,

Until it is mathematically impossible, though, he says there is “no point” in giving up.

"I don't really give up on anything as long as there's a theoretical chance so there's no point in that,” he said after his victory at Suzuka.

"[Japan] was a good example on the track where it's difficult to overtake. You start third, OK, two Ferraris ahead, it's a difficult case to win but it's possible.

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"Yeah, everything's possible although I'm realistic as well that I will need to be very lucky, that's a fact, to win all the rest of the races but I don't really think about that much at this point.”

It was only Bottas’ third victory of the campaign, while Hamilton has nine, and he admits he has nobody to blame but himself for the points chasm between the pair.

“It is my bad, mostly, that I've been behind this much in the points compared to Lewis, it's my fault which I try to fix for the future but it is where we are now and just take it now race by race and see how it goes,” he concluded.

Should Hamilton outscore Bottas by 15 points in the next event in Mexico, he will win his sixth drivers’ championship.