Valtteri Bottas has extended his streak of podium finishes in Formula 1 to three today at the German Grand Prix after crossing the line in second place behind Nico Rosberg and ahead of Lewis Hamilton at Hockenheim.
The Finnish driver produced a great display on Sunday, managing his tires perfectly so that he only had to stop twice while the majority of the field came into the pits on three occasions.
Come the end of the race, his tires were over 40 laps old, yet he was able to fend off a charging Lewis Hamilton in the dying stages of the grand prix to match his best ever result in F1 with second place.
Bottas endured a difficult debut season in 2013, scoring just four points as he struggled to get to grips with the troublesome FW35 car. However, since then, he has flourished into one of the brightest talents in the sport, putting many of the more experienced drivers to shame.
Since securing his first podium finish in Austria, Bottas has not looked back. At Silverstone, he was knocked out in the first part of qualifying, but was able to find a way through the field to finish second behind Hamilton.
Today, he managed to keep out of trouble at turn one – unlike teammate Felipe Massa – to stay in second place through the first round of stops. The only time he came under real pressure for position was when Hamilton was catching in the dying embers of the race, but he remained composed and bagged another eighteen points for Williams.
With this result, Bottas remains fifth in the drivers’ championship, but is just six behind Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. Williams has risen to its highest position in the constructors’ standings since 2003 with this result, passing Ferrari for third despite only having one car finish the race.
Although Bottas has set his sights on ascending to the top step of the podium in the future, he believes that second place was the best result Williams could manage today.
“We always aim for more,” the Finn said. “But for now we need to be happy with these points.
“I think today was the maximum result. We did everything perfectly, and managed to keep Lewis behind at the end which got us an extra few points, but in future, definitely we aim for more.”