Bottas Takes First Rally Title
Most Formula One drivers are having their annual holiday but Valletri Bottas is relaxing behind the wheel of a rally car. Like most Scandinavians he is a good off road racer and has just won his first rally event in France. I think it is all the driving on the ice and mud growing up that they have the ability to handle the cars better than others.
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The event was held at the Paul Ricard track in France and he dominated this even winning 5 out of 9 stages.European Rally Championship driver Robert Consani won the first stage but Bottas clawed him back slowly and won the event buy 50 seconds in the end.
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Bottas is never spectacular but more like a consistent threat as he has shown all season driving for Mercedes. He rarely makes a mistake and will always be there or there abouts at the end. I think Valletri will most likely end up driving in a rally team once he retires from Formula One as he seems like a natural for this. He calls it fun and normally if you are good at something it is fun for you.
Bottas has a good few seasons left in formula One so I think he is just keeping his options open as in 2021 there is going to be a flood of new drivers appearing on the Formula One scene. Seats are going to be hotly contested unless new teams are formed and he may or may not find a seat. I never see him as a number one driver for a team as he hasn't showed that yet even though he came second overall this year. He has the best car of course which really does help.
Rally racing is one of my preferred car racing sport
after open wheel.
Big fan of Indy car.
I see that you post a lot of Formula one team.
Learning process, would you mind posting about Indy car and formula one differences?
I will definitely have a look for you and see what I can learn as I know Formula One and not so much the Indy cars.
Wow... Good for Bottas! Kudos to him, and kudos to Mercedes for letting him :-)
I thought it was good of Mercedes as well, but then again he is learning new skills which will help his driving.
Rally cars look fun. More like what I am used to over here in the States. I think it would be cool to watch one of those races sometime. My friend gets the racing channels and I am sure he has seen them many times before.