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HOCKENHEIM, Germany - Valtteri Bottas endorsed his reputation as one of the rising stars in Formula 1 on Sunday (July 20 2014) after finishing second at the German GP.
Bottas drove his Williams with confidence to claim his third consecutive podium finish for the team as it reeled off it 300th F1 podium finish.
PLAN A
Valtteri said later: "That was fun - those last few laps were close with Lewis (Hamilton) but I'm really happy that we kept our car between the two Mercedes. I actually saw his front left in my mirror completely grained and I knew that he would struggle in the last two corners.
"I tried to pull a bit of a gap there and always get a good exit out of the final corner, Turn 1 and Turn 2 leading on to the back straight. It didn't really matter if he was close in the final sector as there was nowhere to overtake so I just focused on the places that mattered."
Bottas held off Hamilton with some style and added that the resurgent Williams team had given him the ideal strategy for the race. The result equalled the best result of his career.
He added: "It definitely went to plan - that was Plan A and it worked well. We knew it would be difficult here for us to make a two-stop and the last few laps of every stint the tyres were really gone - especially the final stint - with 27 laps on that set of tyres and Lewis behind it was not easy.
"Communication between me and the engineers was really, really good."
His points haul lifted Williams above Ferrari to third in the Constructors' championship.
Stay with Wheels24 for the 2014 F1 season – fresh reports every day.
Bottas drove his Williams with confidence to claim his third consecutive podium finish for the team as it reeled off it 300th F1 podium finish.
PLAN A
Valtteri said later: "That was fun - those last few laps were close with Lewis (Hamilton) but I'm really happy that we kept our car between the two Mercedes. I actually saw his front left in my mirror completely grained and I knew that he would struggle in the last two corners.
"I tried to pull a bit of a gap there and always get a good exit out of the final corner, Turn 1 and Turn 2 leading on to the back straight. It didn't really matter if he was close in the final sector as there was nowhere to overtake so I just focused on the places that mattered."
Bottas held off Hamilton with some style and added that the resurgent Williams team had given him the ideal strategy for the race. The result equalled the best result of his career.
He added: "It definitely went to plan - that was Plan A and it worked well. We knew it would be difficult here for us to make a two-stop and the last few laps of every stint the tyres were really gone - especially the final stint - with 27 laps on that set of tyres and Lewis behind it was not easy.
"Communication between me and the engineers was really, really good."
His points haul lifted Williams above Ferrari to third in the Constructors' championship.
Stay with Wheels24 for the 2014 F1 season – fresh reports every day.