Valtteri Bottas says he had to try to “disturb” Sebastian Vettel to keep the Ferrari behind him in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Vettel dropped behind the Williams after damaging his front wing, needing to pit soon after his second pit stop for a new nose. Emerging in fifth place behind Bottas, Vettel was unable to find a way past in the closing laps as the Finn held on to fourth place despite being in the slower car. After successfully defending for so long, Bottas says he enjoyed the challenge of having to hold off the Ferrari.
"It was not easy because he was approaching really quickly," Bottas said. "I knew it was going to be really tricky, they had a lot of pace. I just tried to do all the things possible to keep him behind – getting good exits, making sure at all the corners the lines are completely correct to try and disturb him, try and get better exits than him, and any boost we had available from the engine it was important to use at the right places."
And Bottas says the result gives him encouragement that Williams is heading in the right direction as it looks to close the gap to the leading two teams.
"I think pretty maximum result so from my side of the garage we can be happy with what we achieved today. We were closer to Ferrari and Mercedes in race pace compared to China, which is good. Obviously there’s plenty of work to do but we’re on the right way."
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