Valtteri Bottas thinks it’s “annoying” that he didn’t get the official pole statistic for the 2021 Italian GP despite topping qualifying and won the sprint race due to a grid penalty.
The FIA ruled that the accolade should normally go to the winner of F1 sprint events, which are being trialed at three events this season, hence the Mercedes driver will not be formally rewarded with pole for the Monza event.
However, Mercedes’ decision to give Bottas his fourth engine of 2021 ahead of Friday evening qualifying – which team trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained was due to the team noticing “an issue with Valtteri’s power unit towards the end of [FP1] and we didn’t have endless time to investigate so we decided to take a new power unit while there was still time to change it” – means he will dro
Following title rival Lewis Hamilton’s poor start from alongside his Mercedes team-mate on the front row in Saturday’s sprint race, second-place sprint finisher Max Verstappen is set to be officially recognized with the official pole.
Verstappen will likely add the Monza pole to his previous ten, as he will start from first on the grid on Sunday, similar to Michael Schumacher not getting the official pole for the 2012 Monaco GP (which went to eventual race winner Mark Webber) due to a grid penalty for crashing into Bruno Senna’s Williams at the previous event in Spain.
When asked how annoying it was to have virtually taken pole twice (since the driver on top in Q3 received pole for every race between Bahrain 2006 and Silverstone 2021, where F1 held its first sprint race experiment), Bottas said: “For sure it’s annoying having done a good last two days.”
“Good performance and then you kind of reset completely for the day after and start from the back.
“But those kind of things, they’re out of my hands so I’m not going to waste too much energy or be too negative about it because there is nothing absolutely I can do about it.
“The only thing I can do is try my best and go full gas tomorrow.
“But at least I got a few points – every point counts. For me personally and for us as a team. And a beautiful medal.”
Bottas replied, “What can I say?” when asked how he feels about starting last for Sunday’s grand prix following a “perfect” Monza race thus far.
“It’s been [a] perfect weekend so far and then I have a grid penalty. That happens.
“But it’s good to see that we have a strong car here, good pace. I’ll be fighting tomorrow to come as high as I can.
“[A] podium is possible. Anything is possible to be honest.
“If you look at the race last year [and] what happened [with Pierre Gasly winning a chaotic and disrupted race], you never know so I’ll keep pushing.”
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