Wolff: Bottas will be stronger for not winning Monaco GP

Toto Wolff has backed Valtteri Bottas to bounce back “stronger” after his disappointment of not being able to win Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix. 

Bottas looked set to take pole position until a last-gasp effort from teammate Lewis Hamilton pipped him right at the end of qualifying.

While Hamilton went on to record his fourth win of the season, Bottas had to settle for third after a puncture picked up in a pitlane collision with Max Verstappen hampered his race. 

The Finn has now fallen 17 points behind Hamilton in the 2019 championship standings.

“Valtteri 2019 is going to get out of this stronger,” Wolff said. “I think he has shown huge resilience and determination in these last races. 

“His speed was mind-blowing in qualifying and I have no doubt that this will annoy the hell out of him and he’s going to come back strong, very very strong, in Montreal. 

“Max lost a position because of the penalty and because of the manoeuvre, and Valtteri lost the second place, 3 points more lost, and Mercedes lost the 1-2. 

“But then again, from the team’s point of view we are super happy with the 1-3. From Valtteri’s point, he will be gutted. 

“He had the pace this weekend. He could’ve had pole yesterday in terms of raw speed and today was, P2 was the minimum I think. He was feeling this was taken away from him.” 

Bottas was convinced he had the pace to challenge for the win had it not been for his clash with Verstappen.

“Obviously a disappointing weekend for me, because I think the speed was really there, I was feeling good in the car,” Bottas explained. 

“Small margins in qualifying and that made the race difficult. So we had to stop same time as Lewis and I lost a bit of time with the pit stop, so Max got me in the pit lane. 

“He left me no room. I got a puncture from that and then I was stuck behind the cars, so a bit of a Sunday drive in the end.

“Definitely there was a lot of pace left and I was kind of trying to see if I could get anywhere close to the fastest lap. 

“Honestly the whole race felt like a Sunday drive around Monaco. It was a bit of a shame but that’s how it is sometimes.”