Bottas’ drinks system failed during F1’s British Grand Prix

It was a sweltering day in Northamptonshire with temperatures nearly reaching 30 degrees. 

Starting from third on the grid, Bottas lost out to Charles Leclerc on the first standing start before gaining a position thanks to Max Verstappen’s tangle with Lewis Hamilton at Copse.

It was a familiar story after the second red flag stoppage where Bottas lost third to Lando Norris.

The Finn managed to get back ahead through the pit stop phase before being forced to let teammate Hamilton through, who went on to take the eventual race victory.

Speaking after the race, Bottas blamed his poor starts for failing to finish higher than third.

“Yes, I had no drinks, the drinks system didn’t work,” Bottas said. “I think the weakness today was the start, on both starts I had quite a bit of wheel spin, so a bit like Lewis’ yesterday, so that was our weakness, that made it a bit more difficult. 

“Then I had to react to the stop from Lando at the beginning, so we stopped a bit too early to be competitive towards the end, but at least we got Lando and it was also nice to help Lewis to win.”

While Bottas wasn’t entirely satisfied with his own result, he was pleased Hamilton and Mercedes as a team was able to cut the deficit to Red Bull by a significant margin after Sergio Perez also failed to finish inside the top ten.

“If I look at the whole picture as a team, it’s obviously a great day for us, in terms of points, and for Lewis as well, to be able to win the race,” Bottas added. “For me what compromised the race and being able to fight for the race win was the race start, in the qualification, in the first race start and obviously after the red flag. 

“Losing a place at the start compromised the race, so when Lando stopped, quite early, he had a slow stop and I had to react to that, as that was the best chance to get ahead of him, so we took the opportunity. At the same time, we knew that was going to compromise the end of the race, but I’m still happy to be on the podium and get some good points.”