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| William’s driver Valtteri Bottas. Source: Gallery Hip |
Williams Martini Racing driver Valtteri Bottas finished the 2013 Formula One season in 17th place in the driver’s championship, just one spot above his teammate Pastor Maldonado. Certainly not a terrible outing for a rookie in the series. But 2014 was a different story for the Finn, paired with ex-Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, Bottas finished in the top five of the points standings and came close to clinching a race win for Williams on several occasions.
In the first five races of the 2014 season, Bottas had consecutive top ten finishes with the highest being fifth place in both Australia and Spain. His 13 year-F1 veteran teammate had finishes of 20, 7, 7, 15, and 13 in those same five races, with Australia being a DNF due to a first lap crash. Bottas has his lone DNF of the year in the next race, Monte Carlo, due to an engine failure on lap 56.
After the disappointing setback in Monaco, Bottas really set himself apart from the “rest of the pack” and established himself as a firm competitor with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. The remaining 13 races on the calendar saw top ten finishes in all but Singapore (13th place finish) for Bottas, eight of those being top five performances. In 2013, Valtteri Bottas had one top ten finish all year which came in the form of a P8 performance in Austin, Texas.
The end of the year tally saw Bottas put up some impressive stats:
- Average start of 6.2
- Average finish of 6.1
- 6 podium finishes
- 98% of the total laps run completed
The Single Seater 