Bottas "fingers crossed" for end of Mercedes engine pain

Valtteri Bottas has revealed his fingers are tightly crossed that his Mercedes engine problems are behind him ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Bottas has taken more engines than any other driver on the grid so far this season and is currently on his sixth, a total double that of the prescribed limit in the regulations.

Whilst team-mate Lewis Hamilton took a 10-place grid penalty for fitting a fourth engine in Turkey, it is Bottas that has borne the brunt of Mercedes' reliability issues since the summer break.

“The team has been working so hard on this case and I think we are getting more confidence on what is actually happening and how to prevent things," explained Bottas.

“I have my fingers crossed that is it for the engine penalties for me but obviously we will see as we go.”

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a circuit that has historically favoured Red Bull with Max Verstappen twice taking victory and setting top two pace in each of the last three qualifying sessions at the venue.

Asked for his predictions as to how the weekend will unfold, Bottas said: “It is obviously hard to know because it is two years since we have been here.

"The tyres are different, the track surface has evolved in two years, engines are different and the cars are different, so it is hard to predict.

“Normally it is a pretty good track for Red Bull. Maybe it has not been a strength for us in the past but we have obviously been working hard and trying to learn the lessons from previous years to see how we compare.

“But I think it is going to be really close again like it has been in pretty much every race.”

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