Bottas has ‘lots to learn’ from costly German GP error

Valtteri Bottas says he has “lots to learn” from his race-ending crash out of Formula 1’s German Grand Prix.

Bottas had been running in fourth place and chasing down Lance Stroll’s Racing Point for the final spot on the podium when he spun off at Turn 1 and slammed into the barriers.

With Lewis Hamilton also enduring a torrid race and lying outside of the points, Bottas was on course to reduce his Mercedes teammate’s 39-point championship lead until his error.

“I made a mistake myself, for sure the team also told me to push harder and I was pushing as hard as I could to get to the podium,” Bottas explained.

“Obviously I pushed a bit too much in that corner, lost the rear-end. It was my mistake and maybe I should have tried to stay more calm and take my time but maybe if I didn’t try that hard maybe I wouldn’t have reached the podium.

“But at least I could have got some points, which would have been important. For sure lots to learn.

“In these kinds of conditions it’s so easy to make this kind of mistake,” he added.

“Obviously I should have done the race without mistakes, that’s always the goal but it happened at the wrong time, and the wrong corner, and that’s it.”