As he crossed the finish line, as opposed to the traditional "yehhhh" or "ahhhhh", race winner, Valtteri Bottas echoed his reaction after winning the 2019 season opener in Australia.

"To all my critics... to whom it may concern... f*** you!"

Asked later to explain who exactly his message was aimed at, and whether it was a response to criticism on social media, and if the criticism bothers him, he replied: "It's not been playing on my mind, but I just don't... honestly I just don't get the people who have the need to criticise people.

"You know, there's been people telling me that I should not bother,” he continued, "I should give up but I will never do that, so I just wanted to, again, send my best wishes to them.

"It just came out, you know, so, yeah. But the main thing is I'm confident, when I come to every race weekend, I'm confident and I believe I can do it and that's how I'm always going to be.

"You have to have that mind-set so yeah, I'm glad. Even yesterday was tough, I didn't give up, I looked at it positively, I knew there would be opportunities and things came to me today, so yeah, I hope I can encourage people not to give up because that's the biggest mistake you can do in your life."

Having dominated proceedings on Friday, on Saturday, when it really mattered, the Finn was unable to match the pace of his teammate, Bottas, like a number of other drivers, at a loss to explain why his car suddenly felt different.

Of course, his situation wasn't helped when a wonder lap from Max Verstappen saw the Red Bull driver join Lewis Hamilton on the front row.

However, a strong start saw the Finn get ahead of Verstappen on the run to Turn 1, and, according to the Mercedes driver, it was only a "massive bee" hitting his visor that compromised his move on Hamilton in Turn 2.

Nonetheless the subsequent time penalties handed to the world champion were enough to help secure Bottas' second win of the season.

"My last win was a while ago, but it's been so close many times," he told reporters. "I feel my race pace especially this season has been quite a bit better than in any season before.

"I can't say it's been frustrating but it's been a bit annoying that it's been close but nearly there, but things definitely did go my way today.

"As I've been saying, things can't go against you forever. So definitely really satisfying today. To get the win, it felt like it was well earned, obviously consider myself lucky as well with Lewis's penalty. But otherwise it was a strong race."

Sadly in an age of keyboard experts, Bottas is one of several drivers who regularly get torn apart on social media. The Finn, like his colleagues, would be best off avoiding it, especially if he is going to take it to heart.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 28/09/2020 12:43

"I've no beef with Valtteri who is a very able driver.
His problem is that he's competing with someone, who like Schumacher or Valentino Rossi is one of the Greatest of All Time. Saturday's Qualification showed Hamilton has the talent AND temperament to perform under pressure. Had Hamilton not broken some arcane rule, and been heavily punished for it, Valtteri would (strategy allowing) probably have come 2nd. That's not "criticism", just an acknowledgement of reality - in the same way that Albon (on current form) will rarely beat Verstappen in the same car.

I'll put Bottas' rather silly outburst in the same category as Hamilton's "conspiracy" theory, as adrenaline-fuelled comments made in haste, to be repented (and regretted) at leisure.
"

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2. Posted by jcr, 28/09/2020 10:38

"And the backing of the team,
To beieve otherwise is naive !!!"

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3. Posted by hussainahm, 28/09/2020 9:13

"The sooner he accepts that it's tough to beat Lewis, the better he'll sleep at night. It's not that he's not good enough, it's Lewis who is exceptional and can get a little bit more out of the car, probably due to his driving style."

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