Bottas doubts Monza F1 win was possible even if he overtook Perez

Bottas enjoyed one of his finest races as a Mercedes driver, going from the back of the grid to finish third.

The Finn looked like he could have won the race at one point, but struggled to get past Perez’s Red Bull on track.

Daniel Ricciardo secured McLaren’s first victory in nine years and Bottas doesn’t believe he would have been able to overtake either Ricciardo or Lando Norris due to their advantage on the straights.

“When I was progressing quite quickly, in the beginning of the medium,” Bottas said. “I could actually see the two McLaren were pretty close and I was catching. But once I was behind Perez, really, in the train, of course, I was trying everything I could, but on the last few laps the tyres just started dropping and that was it. I think it would have been tricky to get past the McLaren, they’ve been getting strong all weekend, they have their strengths, especially on the straight lines.

“Like, yesterday, Lewis was trying everything he could but he couldn’t get past Lando, so I honestly think this was the maximum we could reach today.”

Even though Bottas gained 16 places throughout the race, he found overtaking to be surprisingly difficult despite Monza’s long straights.

“I think it was probably the most positions I’ve gained in my career,” Bottas added. “I don’t know, I’m not the best with statistics. Honestly, although some people might think it’s easy to overtake here in Monza, but actually it isn’t. When there’s a few cars in a row it’s not that easy, so I’m happy with the progress we made today and, of course, we did have a good car today and good strategy.

“Starting with hard tyre, in my case, it was definitively the right choice, to go long and take the opportunities. And then once we went to the mediums it was time to attack and push. Just at the very end the mediums started to drop a bit, but by then things had started to stabilize. Overall, I did everything I could today, and this weekend, so I’m happy.”