Valtteri Bottas "tried something different" that led to "absolutely ridiculous" pit lane spin

Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes in Austria, is being pushed back to the track by McLaren-mechanics — Photo: © LAT Images

Styrian Grand Prix

Bottas "tried something different" that led to "absolutely ridiculous" pit lane spin

Bottas went around in the pit lane during FP2

Ewan Gale

Friday 25 June 2021 16:35 Updated: 16:44

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Valtteri Bottas has conceded to "trying something different" when he spun out of his pit box during second practice for the Styrian Grand Prix.

In a dangerous situation, Bottas slid his Mercedes between the McLaren pit wall and the team's mechanics after dropping the W12 under traction with just under 20 minutes remaining in the session.

Asked what had happened, Bottas said: "Yeah, I spun. We tried something different getting out from the box and it was just there were some variables that wouldn't be normally there with the wheelspin so that is why I spun."

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Bottas is under investigation and faces a stewards' hearing but is confident he will not be punished.

Asked if he felt he would receive a penalty, he replied: “I would be surprised if there is. It’s a normal mistake, it happens. But I’m sure they just want to understand what happened, really.”

McLaren express concerns over "scary" incident

McLaren team manager Paul James was highly critical when speaking to FIA race director Michael Masi in the aftermath of the incident, fuming: "Michael, that was absolutely ridiculous. He could have taken our guys out there, and the pit wall."

Team principal Andreas Seidl, however, was more cautious speaking to Sky Sports F1 post-session.

"Obviously a scary moment but in the end, it can happen," he explained. "All we could do was help Valtteri to find the right direction again with his car, pushing him backwards and forwards."

Asked if he would need to speak to his own drivers about the possibility of such an incident, Seidl added: "It is not something you really need to do because they all know about the pit lane, the people in the pit lane.

"It is important, always, safety is first and we take it cautiously when you exit the pits on new hard tyres, but this can happen. Thank God nothing happened."

Bottas not concerned after "messy" FP2

Bottas was able to muster only P12 in the afternoon but insisted the lap time was not representative and instead pointed to preparation work for race day which the Finn hopes will pay dividends.

"Practice one felt overall a bit better but practice two, we just had the one run with the lower fuel level and that was a bit messy so the lap time on the board was nothing amazing," added Bottas.

"The topic for today was to focus on the long runs, try to find the long-run performance. I think we are proud of our steps today and hopefully, that will pay off on Sunday."