Valtteri Bottas insists he is not feeling the pressure of the title fight despite falling 29 points behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton after a below-par Canadian Grand Prix.
After a strong start to the season Bottas has lost momentum at the past two races — he was a victim of a pit-lane clash with Max Verstappen in Monaco, relegating him to third, before a poor weekend in Canada saw him qualify sixth (after a spin in Q3) and finish fourth. Hamilton duly won on both occasions.
He had a one-point lead over Hamilton after winning in Azerbaijan in April but is now over one whole race victory (25 points) behind.
« I can’t really afford many of these type of weekends if I want to fight for the title, » Bottas said after the Canadian Grand Prix. « I have to move on.
« Maybe it was a bit of a wake-up call again. I’m sure I can always learn from that. For me, thoughts are already on the French Grand Prix. »
Bottas has often spoke this year about the mental toughness required to beat five-time world champion Hamilton to the 2019 crown and remains fully confident in his ability to do so.
« No, I have no pressure. I am very happy about the situation and how everything’s been going since the beginning of the year. I’m enjoying it. I made one mistake [in qualifying]. Maybe at the end I was trying too much to recover that. That can happen.
« I wouldn’t say anything from the last couple of races was anything to do with pressure. I don’t think that [wilting under the pressure] is going to happen. »
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/26963336/bottas-not-cracking-pressure-lewis
