Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has been given a reprimand for his collision with Romain Grosjean in second practice.
Valtteri Bottas and Romain Grosjean were both summoned before the stewards at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. This was after the pair clashed at Turn 11 in the closing stages of the second practice session.
Approaching the end of the second long straight, Bottas had a much greater top speed approaching the tight left hander and dived up the inside of Grosjean’s Haas. Grosjean didn’t appear to have seen Bottas and turned into the corner, resulting in the pair making significant contact. Both Bottas and Grosjean spun around, with Bottas suffering mainly front right damage, and Grosjean rear left damage. They returned to the pits as the session was red flagged, and took no further part in the session.
Having been summoned before the stewards for the clash, Bottas was reprimanded for his part in the incident. The stewards explained: “Valtteri accepted responsibility for the collision and acknowledged that it was a failed attempt at an overtake which resulted in the collision.” It’s the Finn’s first reprimand of 2019.
Bottas already has a grid penalty for this weekend, having required a fresh power unit due to a failure in Brazil.
Aside from those travails, it was actually quite a good day for Bottas as he was untouchable at the top of the timing screens in both practice sessions. He finished the day 0.3 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton on the Soft tyres at the end of FP2.
“It’s been a good day out on track; the car was well-balanced from the get-go.” Bottas said. “I had to take a fresh engine for the weekend which also seems be to working well. My pace looked competitive in both sessions, so from that perspective we’ve definitely started the last race weekend of the season off on the right foot, although I’m sure there’s still room for improvement for tomorrow.”
“The track was a bit dusty on the first few runs in FP1, but it evolved quickly and then felt pretty good all through the session.” Bottas continued. “The end of my FP2 session was compromised by a minor incident with Grosjean; I thought he had seen me going for the overtake on the inside, but by the time I realised that he hadn’t seen me, there was no way for me to escape anymore.”
