Near perfect lap nets Bottas, Williams, fifth on grid at Monza - MotorSportsTalk

Valtteri Bottas has delivered a pivotal fifth place on the grid for Williams Martini Racing at the 2016 Italian Grand Prix, following a near-perfect qualifying lap at the 3.6-mile Monza circuit.

The Finn and Williams have had a rough go of it in recent weeks, as the team has not scored a top-five finish since Bottas came third at the Canadian Grand Prix in mid-June.

But at the lower-downforce circuit and with the Mercedes power unit in the back of the FW38 chassis, there was a good shot for Williams to move up the grid at Monza and potentially into a podium position on Sunday.

The two Mercedes at the front of the field seemed in a league of their own, but the battle for third was intense. The pair of Ferraris locked out Row 2 but Bottas put his Williams in fifth, ahead of both Red Bulls driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

As Bottas described in the post-qualifying bullpen to NBCSN’s Will Buxton, nearly all the stars needed to align for such a qualifying result to happen – and they did.

“I think we knew we had a chance (to beat Red Bull),” Bottas told Buxton. “Our pace was good all weekend. We normally improve for qualifying, and we saw the possibility to be top five. That’s what we achieved today.

“Obviously Felipe (Massa) is out of the top 10, but he has free tire choice. He has a good opportunity to come back tomorrow.”

Bottas noted that Massa missed out on Q3, and the Brazilian will start 11th for what will be his final Italian Grand Prix. Massa was third in this race last year, and this weekend marks the one-year anniversary of his most recent podium result.

For tomorrow, barring any Mercedes issues, it appears there’s only one podium position to fight for. And the final podium position will set up as a strategic chess match between Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull. Ferrari is undoubtedly the home favorite, but Bottas would like to usurp them tomorrow.

“I think we could (get to Ferrari),” he said. “From what we’ve seen in practice in high fuel runs, we’re a lot better here than in Spa. The tire life seems OK and pace has been good. We’ll try for it.”

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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