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Valtteri Bottas admits Williams is “lucky” to leave Singapore only one point adrift of Force India in the Constructors’ championship, given the speed advantage the latter had over the former at Marina Bay Circuit.
Williams slipped back to fifth in the standings after failing to score for the second time this year. However, Force India, which saw both its drivers outqualify Bottas and team-mate Felipe Massa, could not fully capitalise on Williams’ difficult weekend.
Sergio Pérez was demoted to the back of the grid after taking an eight-place grid penalty for yellow flag infringements in Q2, while Nico Hulkenberg’s race lasted less than 100m before the German was pitched into the wall.
“I think we were kind of lucky.” Bottas said. “Both Felipe and I had bad races, even in his case the pace wasn’t there, but one of the Force India retired and Pérez, starting from the back was only eighth.
“We were lucky but it was also a missed opportunity to get a bigger gap over them. The difference now between the two teams is next to none, there are a few good races to come for us, so it’s going to be a good fight.”
Having uninterruptedly featured in the points since the British Grand Prix, Bottas’ streak ended due to a cascade of issues.
“I had a good start but almost immediately I had to brake as Hulkenberg and a Toro Rosso touched and Nico went across the track into the pit wall right in front of me,” the Finn added.
“Then, just before Turn One, Button hit me hard on the back, lost his front wing and punctured my left rear tyre. I was avoiding the collision and we touched… The damaged tyre broke parts of the floor of the car, so I lost a lot of downforce and everything went wrong after that.”
Bottas remained however tight-lipped on the incident that saw his seatbelt become loose halfway through the 61-lap night contest.
“I cannot say anything about that. We are still investigating what happened. It was not ideal but I cannot say anything else about it.”
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