Poor Valtteri Bottas just can’t catch a break. The Mercedes driver’s bad luck continues with him still held up in Finland due to a flight delay, just a day out from the first practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

In an ideal world, Valtteri should have already been in Baku preparing for the media day ahead. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Autosport quoted Bottas saying, “I’ve been at the airport five-and-a-half hours now.” 

Luckily for the driver and his team, he should make it to Azerbaijan by today and will be all but ready to suit up for the Silver Arrows tomorrow.

Nevertheless, this delay would be one among the many things that have pissed off Valtteri in the last couple of weeks. As the old saying goes, ‘when it rains, it pours.’ Bad luck can often tend to follow you for a while, and Bottas is experiencing just that after an unfortunate pit-stop incident in Monaco that ruled him out of the race.

The Finn was in P2 and looked set for a podium finish until he dove into the pits, never to return. A jammed wheel nut on his front right tire proved to be his demise. It took the Brackley-based outfit nearly five days to separate the wheel from the car.

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Valtteri Bottas will hope his luck changes in Baku

After a weekend to forget in the streets of Monte Carlo, the Mercedes man will hope that he can bounce back strongly. His record at this circuit is impressive; the Finn won the last race at this venue and finished on the podium in 2017 as well.

However, he’d want to avoid the kind of luck he saw in 2018. In that race, Bottas had started on pole position and was on course to win the race. But unfortunately for him, a late tire blowout caused him to retire.

He’ll hope that this time around he can add to his Grand Prix wins tally here. However, it’ll be easier said than done. Team boss Toto Wolff doesn’t think the track suits the Mercedes W12. So for all you know, Bottas could be condemned to another disappointing outing. But only time will tell how the race really pans out.

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