Bottas satisfied with US GP performance despite title loss

Valtteri Bottas was pleased by his race-winning performance at the United States Grand Prix despite missing out on the 2019 Formula 1 world championship to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas converted his fifth pole position of the season into his fourth win on a two-stop strategy, having successfully passed the one-stopping Hamilton in the closing stages of the Austin race.

The Finn’s victory was not enough to prevent Hamilton clinching his sixth drivers’ world title, with the Briton finishing second and scoring more than the minimum four points he needed to wrap up the 2019 crown.

“It was a good weekend, and definitely a place I will look forward to coming back again next year,” Bottas said.

“A really strong race from us as a team, the pace was good, and one or two stop didn’t make much of a difference to be honest.

“I’m happy also that the two stop for me worked, because at some point I was a little bit worried that Lewis would be able to maintain the pace until the end, but his tyres started to go towards the end.

“I’m pleased with the performance. Obviously I did lose the championship, but it was unavoidable really with the points gap eventually.

“Now he got it, so now I focus for next year. We have two more races to go, which I want to win.”

Bottas said he aims to take his recent strong momentum into next year to turn in a greater challenge against Hamilton.

“It’s obviously very impressive what Lewis has achieved, and also we as a team, so yeah, obviously I think he deserved the title this year,” Bottas conceded. “He was better overall.

“He’s got no real weaknesses on any of the tracks. He’s always able to find the performance in whatever the conditions and circumstances.

“And he’s been doing maybe less mistakes overall than me this year, and he’s been there always, so that has made the difference 

“I’ve been gaining some good momentum though, so I look forward to next year.”

Additional reporting by Julianne Cerasoli