Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Bottas remains a doubt after night in hospital

Valtteri Bottas remains a doubt for the Australian Grand Prix after spending a night in hospital with back pain.

The Finn felt pain during Q2 on Saturday, and after qualifying sixth on the grid he was checked at the circuit medical centre before being transferred to Albert Hospital in Melbourne, with Rob Smedley saying Bottas was "in a great deal of pain".

Williams has announced hospital checks showed Bottas to have sustained some soft tissue damage to his lower back, and as a result he was kept in hospital overnight to try and help him recover.

"He remained in hospital overnight and following a restful night is now working with a physiotherapist prior to final assessment by the FIA in the early afternoon to determine whether he will be able to race later today," Williams said in a statement.

If Bottas is unfit to race, Williams is unable to replace him as he qualified the car. Felipe Massa starts third in the other FW37.

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.