Mercedes downplay Bottas’ ‘sensor issue’

Valtteri Bottas finished Friday’s practice for the British GP top of the charts, however, it wasn’t a trouble-free session for the Finn.

Bottas clocked a 1:26.732 to go quickest at the Silverstone circuit, edging his team-mate Lewis Hamilton by 0.069s on an afternoon where the wind caused havoc especially at Maggots and Becketts.

But while Bottas didn’t have any major issues in the wind, he did have one with a suspected spark plug.

The Finn missed about 10 minutes of track time in the latter part of the session with reports claiming an engine issue that was spark plug related.

Mercedes changed the plug and Bottas was able to return to the action, putting in his final few laps for the day.

James Allison, Mercedes’ technical director, has downplayed the moment, saying it was precautionary more than anything else.

“I haven’t really heard from the engineers there,” Alison told Sky F1.

“I think it is a discretion if the better part of valor type change, making sure we absolutely don’t hurt the PU.

“It is certainly a sensor issue rather than a plug issue.”

“But,” he added, “better safe than sorry.”

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