Valtteri Bottas accepts blame for "strange" United States GP exit

Valtteri Bottas in Austin — Photo: © LAT Images

Alfa Romeo

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Bottas accepts blame for "strange" United States GP exit

Bottas has gone 10 races without registering a point

Sam Hall

Tuesday 25 October 2022 14:40

Valtteri Bottas has accepted fault for his race-ending crash at the United States Grand Prix.

The Alfa Romeo driver caused the first safety car period at the Circuit of the Americas after losing the rear of his car at turn 19 and ending up beached in the gravel.

The incident took away Bottas' chance for points given the car's improved pace by virtue of an upgrade package, taking his drought to 10 races.

"The pace and the car felt pretty good," said Bottas.

"We could battle with [Pierre] Gasly and [Lando] Norris and definitely should have been able to get some points, but in the end, it was my mistake.

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"I was trying to get within the aero zone of Gasly so I was pushing pretty hard, but the lap I lost the back end, the engineers said there was 25kph gust from behind so that, for sure, didn’t help.

"It was a bit strange but in the end, it was just my mistake. I was pushing hard but the engineers confirmed the gust on the lap was way bigger than any other lap.

"I was on the limit and when that happens you can’t really catch it."

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Bottas had started seventh but dropped to 13th prior to his incident as the pit-stop strategies played out.

But with Zhou Guanyu failing to overcome a grid penalty to score points, Alfa Romeo's run without scoring now stands at three races.

Asked if this outcome was one of the most disappointing of the year, the Finn replied: "Absolutely.

"We should have got some points here so it is disappointing but what can I do, we will try again.

"We still have three races to go, but at least we seem to be a bit more competitive with the car than we have been recently, so that gives us hope we can still score."