Bottas: Ricciardo’s Canada moves ‘really on the limit’

Valtteri Bottas feels Daniel Ricciardo’s defensive moves in their Canadian Grand Prix battle were “really on the limit” and “a bit on the dangerous side”, adding he expects the matter to come up in Friday’s drivers’ briefing.

Bottas and Ricciardo battled for a number of laps in Montreal two weeks ago, with Ricciardo pulling a number of bold defensive moves to keep the faster Mercedes behind.

While Bottas was ultimately able to pass en route to a fourth-place finish, the Finn said on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s French Grand Prix that he found Ricciardo’s moves to be close to the limit of what is allowed in the regulations.

“ I think it was really on the limit of the regulations but, like I said after the race, I had a feeling it was just a matter of time before I’d get through with the pace difference we had,” Bottas said.

“That’s why I didn’t bother complaining and, at the same time, it was quite good fun, but maybe a bit on the dangerous side.

“I’m sure everyone could see he was waiting for me to make the move and when I was just next or close to him he moved.

“If it’s dangerous or not, I’m not quite sure, but it was on the limit of the rules.

“I’m pretty sure that situation will come up in the drivers’ meeting on Friday afternoon, when we go through all the things from the previous race. So, we’ll see it there.”

Ricciardo spoke about how much he enjoyed the fight with Bottas despite knowing he would ultimately lose out. 

“I wanted to fight as hard as I could to keep that. I knew the odds were against me,” Ricciardo said.

“It just felt too easy to let him go, and maybe it would have been better for my tyres and my race in the end. I don’t know, I was like let’s put up a fight. I knew I was clearly the underdog in that battle. He was on fresher tyres, in a faster car. I was like let’s test myself here and try and keep him back as long as I could.

“That was a little personal challenge for me as well. I also thought that everyone expected us to drop behind the faster cars in the race, so I thought well if I can maybe give the team of something to get excited for again, then why not?

“I did it a few laps, and actually then that increased the kind of fight in me. I thought if I’ve done it for three, four laps now, maybe I could do it for another 40 or something!

“It was nice to race one of those cars that’s won races this year. There was certainly some aggression behind the visor for those few laps. Happy aggression.”