Bottas' Mercedes "damaged beyond repair"

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed Valtteri Bottas' power unit was mostly "damaged beyond repair" in his high-speed Imola crash.

Bottas was defending from Williams' George Russell last weekend when the pair collided at the fastest point of the circuit, sending both into the barriers and destroying both cars.

After initial analysis in the aftermath, Shovlin has given an update on the extent of the damage to the car.

He said: "We got the power unit at Brixworth where that's being checked and inspected carefully and we will just pick through this and some of the bits we might be able to salvage, unfortunately, quite a lot of it is damaged beyond repair and we are just looking at a logistics plan to try and be able to get sufficient parts to Portimão, which is the week after next, to make sure we can run both cars in the correct spec.”

On Bottas' health, Shovlin added: “As much as we like our car, we like Valtteri more and happily he was able to come out of that with not much more than a bruised knee from the impact.

"But it was a big crash, we were seeing around 30g at points in his trip around the walls and the track.

"Unfortunately, the car has not done quite so well. We have managed to bring a lot of it back to the UK, we got the power unit at Brixworth where that's being checked and inspected carefully.

"We will just pick through this and some of the bits we might be able to salvage."

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