Bottas: Losing Monza F1 pole “annoying” after “perfect weekend”

On Monday, it was finally announced that Bottas will drive for Alfa Romeo in 2022, paving way for George Russell’s promotion from Williams.

Bottas stormed to top spot in qualifying and converted it into a comfortable sprint race victory ahead of Max Verstappen.

The Finn will start the race from 20th on the grid having taken a new power unit for this weekend.

“What can I say, it has been a perfect weekend so far and now I have a grid penalty,” Bottas said. “That happens, but it’s good to see that we have good speed from the car here, good pace, and I’ll be fighting tomorrow, going as high as I can tomorrow.

“For sure it’s annoying. We’ve done good last two days, with good performance and then you kind of re-set completely for the day after and you start from the back. Those are things that are out of my hands, so I’m not going to waste too much energy or be too negative about it because there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.

“The only thing I can do is try my best and go full gas tomorrow. At least, I got a few points, every point count for me personally and for us as a team.”

Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton made a poor start from second, dropping to fifth on the opening lap.

Bottas confirmed that he would have relinquished the lead to Hamilton had his teammate remained in second.

“It would have not been the first time for me,” Bottas added. “Obviously, you know the situation in the championship. For us, in an ideal world, we would have both made a good start and then we would have swapped if it was safe, for obvious reasons.

“But Lewis had a bad start and that, of course, is not great for him, not great for us, as a team, in terms of points. But that gave me the opportunity win the Sprint, which is, for me personally, is nice that I can race.”