Wolff questions when luckless Bottas will "catch a break"

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has questioned when Valtteri Bottas will finally "catch a break".

In a season when Bottas faces severe competition for his seat for 2022 from Williams' George Russell and Esteban Ocon at Alpine, the Finn has endured his worst start to a campaign with the team after the first five races, collecting just 47 points.

Bottas' run of bad luck dates back to last year's Bahrain GP in which he finished eighth from second on the grid after collecting a puncture behind the safety car in the wake of Lance Stroll's Racing Point flipping following a collision with Daniil Kvyat in his AlphaTauri.

In the following race in Sakhir, Bottas was again eighth from pole due to a pit-stop mix-up over tyres.

The misfortune continued in the first race of this season, again in Bahrain, as he suffered another slow pitstop en route to third before then being involved in a high-speed crash with Russell in the following grand prix at Imola.

In Monaco, Bottas suffered a bizarre retirement due to the machining of a wheel nut that refused to undo.

Extending his sympathy towards Bottas, Wolff said: “Valtteri led our fight all weekend. He was set for a strong podium finish if it wasn’t for the wheel nut problem which forced him to DNF.

“I’ve never seen something like that before in my years in racing, and it must have felt awful in the cockpit as his rivals went by.

“Sometimes, you just wonder when he will catch a break but Valtteri always comes back stronger and more determined. I admire his Finnish resilience so much.

“I know we will emerge stronger as a team, to give him the results he deserves.”

Mercedes to bounce back in Baku?

With Lewis Hamilton a lowly seventh due to tyre issues and a dubious strategy call, Mercedes ended the day losing the lead of both the drivers' and constructors' championships to Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

With 18 races remaining, however, Wolff recognises the battle between Mercedes and Red Bull will be nip and tuck throughout the course of the campaign.

"You have to take a weekend like this on the chin," added Wolff. "We lost a few points but this is a long championship.

"It is going to swing back and forth and in the end, we will see in Abu Dhabi who has their nose ahead.

"We will regroup and look back, as much as it hurts, to learn the lessons and come back stronger."

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