Bottas ‘quite surprised’ to be pressured by Norris in F1 Austrian GP

Bottas scored a record seventh podium at the Red Bull Ring as he finished nearly 18 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.

Starting from fifth on the grid, Bottas moved up to fourth, benefitting from Norris and Sergio Perez’s collision early on.

The Finn got past Norris through the pit stop phase after the McLaren driver was forced to serve a five-second penalty for the aforementioned incident. 

Mercedes then ordered Lewis Hamilton to move out of the way for Bottas after the seven-time champion picked up significant damage at the rear of his car having hit a kerb at Turn 10.

Bottas kept Norris at bay in the final stages to score his best result of 2021.

“I can’t say it was really smooth, it was not an easy race for us,” Bottas said. “But from starting 5th and ending up in second, I think we really had to fight to get to his place and I don’t think there was much left on the table for us today.

“Max had a really straightforward race, he was quick, the car was quick, so I think second was ultimately from the maximum we could get today. It was not so easy to do the one-stop, we were definitely suffering a little bit with the tyres, but we knew that would be the case, anyway.”

Assessing Mercedes’ main competition in Austria, Bottas says he wasn’t surprised by Red Bull’s dominant pace but was surprised to see Norris’ run Mercedes close for second having finished over 30 seconds behind at the Styrian Grand Prix.

“Red Bull’s pace was no surprise,” Bottas added. “We saw last week that they were fast and, of course, we expected them to be fast again. I think  McLaren, they’ve made a good step, they were definitely putting some pressure on us in the end, and it was quite surprising considering that there were quite a few tenths in pace difference last weekend.

“I don’t know, maybe Lando can tell me later what they found from the week before and then we can improve.”