Valtteri Bottas (no. 77) – 3rd<\/b><\/p>\n
The Finn hoped to compete against Hamilton and Rosberg for the win in Russia, but it wasn’t the case: \u00ab We approached this race with the belief that we were going to fight with the Mercedes for the victory, but their race pace surprised us a bit and in the end, we have to be satisfied with this 3rd place and this new podium. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Bottas did everything he could to stay with Hamilton at the start of the race but couldn’t manage and was surprised by Rosberg’s comeback later on: \u00ab I kept up with Hamilton at the beginning but midway through the first stint, my rear tires started to degrade which allowed him to open up a gap. In the second stint, I didn’t realize Rosberg was so close and his overtaking surprised me, but he had more pace at that moment because my mediums took a good ten laps to work properly so he would have overtaken me anyway. I managed to come back in the final laps because my tires were getting better and better but he had already managed to build too big of a gap. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Felipe Massa (no.19) – 11th<\/b><\/p>\n
The Brazilian attempted a gamble with the strategy, but it didn’t work, particularly because of Sergio Perez and his Force India being too fast on the straights: \u00ab My strategy was undermined by the traffic today, and that prevented me from getting into the points. We decided to stop on the first lap, and then I had space and a good pace with the soft tires, so I gained positions. I then came up against Perez, who had good top speed, so I lost a lot of time behind him. After my second stop, I found myself behind Perez again and never really had an opportunity to take a risk and pass him. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Massa still remains confident and turns towards the next race in Austin: \u00ab Obviously, it’s disappointing to finish 11th when we had a competitive car, but we seem strong at this point in the season and we need to focus on Austin now and ensure we have a trouble-free race. \u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Valtteri Bottas hoped to fight with Mercedes but he ultimately settles for his 3rd place finish in Russia. Felipe Massa hoped to come back in the race in Sochi but he got stuck behind Sergio Perez and finishes ultimately on the edge of the points, in 11th position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":39359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[92,1491,1707],"class_list":["post-14394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-bilan","tag-sotchi","tag-williams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n