"It shows how much progress we are doing" - Valtteri Bottas pleased with another strong finish for Alfa Romeo at 2022 F1 Spanish GP
Valtteri Bottas had another strong points finish in Barcelona. The Finn enjoyed another weekend where he was the best of the rest in terms of the stakes in the midfield as he qualified in 7th on Saturday and went on to finish 6th in the race.
Speaking to the media afterwards, Bottas sounded very confident and talked about how the result was proof of the progress that Alfa Romeo has made this season. He said:
“We got some good points today and we take plenty of positives home. Our pace throughout the race was really strong and it was nice to be in battles with the big teams ahead – it shows how much progress we are doing and how the upgrades we brought here seem to work well.”
6th place in Barcelona 🏁
Read about the day: sauber-group.com/motorsport/f1-…
#VB77 #F1 #SpanishGP https://t.co/x3S5ynHlrH
Valtteri Bottas then went on to talk about his team's strategy, saying:
“In the end, we chose to be aggressive and take a risk with the strategy, going for a two-stopper when everyone else went for three: it didn’t pay off, as the tyre life of the medium compound was a bit shorter than we anticipated and we struggled at the end, but we still brought home a good result. I’m really looking forward to Monaco now, our car should be pretty good there.”
Valtteri Bottas did an excellent job: Alfa Romeo
Post race 🗣 with @valtteribottas 🏁
#SpanishGP https://t.co/SUdK7fMrvG
Valtteri Bottas has seemingly impressed Alfa Romeo's team principal Frederic Vasseur as well. Speaking to the media, the Frenchman was very complimentary of his driver and the team, as well as the Spanish GP weekend, which proved the level of progress the team had made.
Vasseur said:
“We experienced another race in which we showed just how quick we can be, and to bring home eight more points, finishing just behind the front runners, is a positive result. We can be pleased about our performance, even more so given that we were not expecting Barcelona to suit us too well, so we can be confident we can be competitive on every race weekend. Valtteri [Bottas] did an excellent race, without putting a wheel wrong and managing his car well. In the end, he was powerless to stop [Carlos] Sainz and [Lewis] Hamilton, on fresher tyres, passing him, but we will take sixth.”
Bottas currently finds himself 8th in the championship standings with 38 points to his name. When it was announced last season that the Finn was moving to Alfa Romeo, not many would have expected him to have such a great time with the team.