Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Bottas ruled out of Australian Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas has been ruled out of the Australian Grand Prix with a back injury after failing FIA fitness tests.

Bottas complained of back pain during Q2 on Saturday, with hospital scans showing the Finn to have injured the lower part of his back. Following a night in hospital, Bottas had to face FIA tests in order to assess if he would be allowed to race.

Following evaluation from the FIA Medical Delegate, Bottas has been ruled out having failed the extraction test regarding how quickly he could exit the car unaided.

Williams says it will now try to make sure Bottas is fit to take part in the Malaysian Grand Prix in two weeks time.

"It can be confirmed that the scans revealed that Valtteri had suffered has a very small tear in the annular part of a disc in his lower back," Williams said in a statement.

"Valtteri has since been evaluated by the FIA’s medical team and following a series of tests the FIA Medical Delegate has deemed Valtteri unfit to take part in this afternoon’s race. The team respect the FIA’s decision and will now work with Valtteri ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix to ensure he receives the treatment required to get him back to full fitness."

The result means only 17 cars will start the Australian Grand Prix, with neither Manor running this weekend. Williams is unable to replace Bottas as he is the driver who qualified the car.

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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.