Valtteri Bottas was one of the stars of the Russian GP as he posted his fifth podium finish of the season with a third place for Williams.
The Finn, who set the fastest lap of the race right at the end, also moved up to fourth place in the World Championship.
“I need to be happy for us as a team,” he said. “What we have been doing since last year is amazing. Again on the podium, so a good amount of points. We were today ‘best of the rest.’ Unfortunately, Mercedes is still quite a bit ahead but, you know, we did the best we could from where we started, so we need to be happy as a team.”
Bottas hung on to Lewis Hamilton in the early stages, and was only four to five seconds behind after 15 laps, before the Briton began to pull away. Later he lost second place to the recovering Nico Rosberg.
“The beginning seemed to be very good, and I was not far off from Lewis, and everything was going into the plan. The tires were feeling good and suddenly the rear tires started to go, started to lose pace, and I was struggling more and more and Lewis was getting far away. Then we stopped for the prime and it took just a really long time to get the prime tire to work. It was just getting better towards the end. I did my best lap in the last lap of the race. It was really weird.
“And as it took so long to get the tires to work, Nico got me in Turn One. It was a bit of a surprise for me, didn’t expect him to come inside. Luckily I saw him in time so there was no contact. As a team I think we again did a good job. We’ve come so much forward from last season so it’s again, really good to be on the podium.”
