GPI 2017 Austrian Grand Prix | Page 124

JUMP START? S ebastian Vettel was adamant that Austrian Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas jumped the start, despite the fact that race officials had the Mercedes driver’s reaction time at 0.201 of a second and within the limits. During the podium interviews Vettel told Martin Brundle, “I was pretty sure he jumped it.” A few minutes later during the post race press conference the Ferrari driver remained unconvinced, “From my point of view he jumped the start but… obviously I was sure that he did; it looked like it from the inside of the car but it’s not for me to judge at the end of the day.” “I probably was a bit late because it’s quite tricky then to keep standing still but yeah, I think it was OK. I had a bit of wheelslip later on but overall I thought it was a good start.” He was then told of Bottas’ reaction time and replied, “Don’t believe that.” Later, during the press conference, he was pressed again about the matter, to which he responded, “First of all, to clarify it, I don’t want to take anything away from Valtteri, I think he drove an excellent race. Obviously at the end, with a difficult car he didn’t do a mistake, so he performed well.”