Race and classic pictures

Bottas' visit to Rio is going swimmingly

© Valtteri Bottas/Twitter.com

In the latest instalment of checking in with what Formula One drivers are doing during the summer shutdown, see if you can guess where in the world Valtteri Bottas is this week? We've left a small little visual clue in the picture to help you out.

Yes, all right, he's in Rio for the Olympics. And with good reason to, as he's there to support his girlfriend Emilia Pikkarainen who is part of the Finnish national swimming team. The couple are photographed together here in the heart of the Olympic Village where the competitors are staying.

Pikkarainen's first Olympics appearance was back in 2008 when she was aged just 15. She currently holds the national record for the 50 meters and 100 meters butterfly, 200 meter butterfly and 200 meters individual medley. At Rio she'll be competing in the 400m mixed relay together with team mates Mimosa Jallow, Jenna Laukkanen, and Hanna-Maria Seppälä, while Bottas watches and cheers from poolside.

It's possible that Bottas might run into a familiar face or two in Rio: his Williams team mate Felipe Massa has also hinted that he'll be in Roo to support the Brazilian team going for gold.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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