Valtteri Bottas, who just celebrated his 31^st birthday two days ago, finished in second today alongside teammate Lewis Hamilton in which allowed Mercedes-AMG to pick up their 50^th 1-2 finish since coming back into the sport back in 2010.

The driver commented post-race “The race was pretty straight-forward today; I was hoping to really get some good opportunities today in the first lap and at the Safety Car restart, but I couldn’t use the two going up to Turn 5 enough today.”

He added, “I was actually really close to Lewis out of the first corner, but the two effect was much smaller today than it was in previous years. I’m not quite sure why, maybe that’s because we had a tail wind going into Turn 5. I don’t think there was really any other opportunity to catch Lewis; he was on pole, drove a good race and deserved the win today”.

To continue, “Towards the end of the race, we had to really manage the tyres quite a bit; I was starting to get the same kind of vibration that I felt before the end of the race in Silverstone when I suffered the puncture. I had to reduce the pace quite a bit to save the tyres, but it worked out and I’m happy that this time I didn’t lose the points”.

When Valtteri was informed that this is his 51^st podium which is the same number of podiums as Mika Häkkinen scored in his career he commented, “he was my idol growing up, so it’s great to equal him in that way, although he is obviously mostly known for his two titles”.

With that being said, next stop is Monza. Time for an all new race mentality and hoping that tyres management are on the team's side. 

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/f1/16890/f1-gp-de-belgica-cronica-y-resultados-de-la-carrera-hamilton-gestiono-su-victoria-en-spa-francorchamps