Bottas couldn’t predict “sudden” late tyre failure at F1 British GP

Valtteri Bottas says he had no time to react to his tyre failing in the closing stages of the Formula 1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Bottas was running a comfortable second until his front-left tyre suffered a delamination in the opening sector of the lap on the penultimate lap of the race.

The Finn slowly returned to the pits, dropping down to 11th - where he ultimately finished.

Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton suffered the same issue on the final lap but was able to hang onto the victory meaning 30 points now separates the duo in the drivers’ championship.

Reflecting on the events of the final couple of laps, Bottas said: Of course really disappointing and very unlucky. It was where I got the puncture, I had to go around the whole lap - not ideal. We knew it was going to be a long stint on the hard tyres. 

“I was trying to put pressure on Lewis but towards the end I was going to get more and more vibration. I reported that and then at the end, I had in my mind ‘who knows, there may be an issue’ so I started to manage a bit but it just happened like this - so sudden and I couldn’t really predict it happening.”

Pirelli is set to bring softer tyres to next weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Bottas believes no team will be able to do a one-stop strategy after the tyre failures which were seen in today's race.

“It’s going to be an issue for everyone,” Bottas added. “For sure, one stop is not going to happen with the compounds we have next week. I am sure there will be lots of things learned from this weekend. Just need to move on I guess.”