Valtteri Bottas will be starting five-places lower than he qualified for the Australian Grand Prix thanks to a grid penalty from his crash in qualifying. This penalty means that the Mercedes driver will be starting from P15 on the grid.
The crash occurred on Bottas’ first qualifying run in Q3 when he spun his Mercedes into the barriers. Bottas carried too much speed into the first corner and took too much of the kerb, which had been dampened by the previous rain. He lost the rear of the car and sent the car backwards into the outside wall in turn two.
“I think I was just pushing a bit too hard,” explained Valtteri Bottas. “I went wide in Turn 1 and the kerb was still a bit damp. I lost the rear of the car and hit the wall outside of Turn 2. It’s very unfortunate and I feel sorry for the team because we have a really competitive car. It looked like it was damaged pretty badly, so I really hope we can fix it for the race.”
The car received heavy damage and Bottas was taken to the circuit medical centre, where he has since been cleared to race. However, Mercedes investigated the car and found that the brand-new gearbox was too damaged to use in the race, requiring them to swap it out for a new one and take a five-place grid penalty.
Bottas will be starting from P15 on the grid. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mercedes garage, Lewis Hamilton has secured his first pole position of 2018, showing that Mercedes can still be a strong force in this season.
