Bottas: not the kind of birthday present I wanted

The race at Spa was the fifth in a row in which the Alfa Romeo team scored no points. Valtteri Bottas retired on the second round after being hit by Nicholas Latifi, with Guangyu Zhou finishing 14th.

Frederic Vasseur, Team leader: “The team has done well given the circumstances. Unfortunately this was not enough to earn points. We knew that the weekend will be difficult due to the replacement of the power unit and gearbox, but the pace shown cannot but be delighted.

Both riders could earn points. Unfortunately Valtteri’s race ended almost immediately after the start, with Zhou trapped in a group of cars in the DRS zone behind Alex Albon. It happens. We will continue to build momentum and work hard to maximize the result at Zandvoort.”

Guanyu Zhou (14th): “Today we had a pretty good pace. Despite starting from last position due to a penalty, the race turned out to be exciting with many fights. Unfortunately at the end of the race I got stuck in a group of cars behind the Williams. Alex was difficult to overtake due to the fact that he was very fast in the first sector. In the last four or five laps the tires stopped holding the track, so it was hard for me to keep up.

In terms of results we wanted more today, but the team sacrificed the weekend for an engine change. I hope that in the next phase we will start from higher positions and get a good result.”

Valtteri Bottas (retirement): “Today the car had speed and given the unusual set-up at the start, we had a chance of a good result. Too bad it ended too soon for me. Actually, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I saw Latifi turn and try to dodge to avoid a collision. Unfortunately my car started spinning on the grass and got stuck in the gravel. I tried to get onto the freeway, but the car wouldn’t move.

Not the kind of birthday present I wanted, but hopefully I can have some fun in the evening and then we’ll move on to the next stage.”