Valtteri Bottas managed to finish P13 at the F1 2026 Chinese GP, beating his teammate, Sergio “Checo” Pérez by two positions.
In just the second ever Grand Prix of the Cadillac team in F1, Bottas was happy to see some improvements in their results. After a DNF in Australia, P13 in the Shanghai International Circuit meant a whole lot more.
The Finnish driver had qualified P20 on Saturday, while Pérez ended up P22. Bottas outqualified Lance Stroll in the process.
However, after a rocky race, they each gained 7 positions on Sunday. While Albon, Bortoleto, Norris and Piastri did not start the race, Alonso, Stroll and Verstappen were unable to finish it. The 10-time race winner did beat Esteban Ocon to P13.
Bottas on the collision with Perez at the F1 2026 Chinese GP
Bottas and Pérez were lucky to even cross the finish line after colliding on the opening lap at turn 3, causing time loss for the Mexican as he spun.
When asked about the crash after the race in the print media pen, Bottas said that the team would “for sure” look into it to prevent it from happening again.
“We’ll look at what we could have done differently. But in the end, we finished, it was good.
“Yeah, I had a big piece missing from the floor on the left side, so that didn’t help.
“But still, yeah, I just felt all the contact. I didn’t really know he was there, but all good in the end.”
Bottas is “very proud” of Cadillac for getting both cars through the checkered flag on their second race
Even with the damage after the collision, the Finnish driver was still happy with the result at the F1 2026 Chinese GP.
“And yes, very, very happy to be 13th in our second Grand Prix for the team. Getting already close to the points. Of course, there were many DNFs, but it’s good work for us.”
After seeing so many experienced teams and world champions, like Verstappen/Red Bull and Norris/McLaren, struggle with the new cars and not being able to start or finish the race, Valtteri Bottas celebrated the team’s achievement.
Nonetheless, he also pointed out how far they have to go to start getting close to the midfield.
“Yeah, very proud. Like I said, for the second race to finish with both cars [is huge]. And yeah, P13, P15, it’s decent. So it’s a good starting point.
“For sure we’re lacking pace. We can see that it’s only pretty much Aston [Martin] at the moment that we can fight with. At least we can fight with them. But if we want to beat some other teams, then we need more performance.“
