25/06/2021
NEWS STORY
Valtteri Bottas has been handed a 3-place grid penalty following today's incident in which he spun his Mercedes in the pitlane.
When the Finn pulled away from his designated pit stop position, he lost control of his car when he turned into the fast lane. He oversteered, spun and came to a stop across the fast lane near the McLaren pits.
During the subsequent hearing Bottas stated that in the past Mercedes have been losing time in the pit departure, so they tried something new, which was to leave in second gear. As a result, the wheel spin was much higher and the result unexpected. Therefore he didn’t manage to control the car properly into the fast lane.
According ot the stewards, this has to be considered as potentially dangerous driving, especially as personnel were around in the pit lane.
In addition to the three-place grid drop, Bottas was given two penatly points on his licence.
In the moments after the incident, McLaren's team manager, Paul James voiced his concerns in a radio message to Michael Masi.
"Michael, that's absolutely ridiculous," he said. "They could have taken out one of the guys or the pit wall."
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Bottas said: "Yeah, I spun. We tried something different coming out of the box and there were some variables compared to what I normally do and that's why I spun."
Check out our Friday gallery from Spielberg, here.