Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas has said there's no hard feelings between himself and George Russell, saying their Imola collision is now in the past after the British driver reached out to apologise. Russell and Bottas collided at Imola, with Russell losing control of his Williams while passing the Mercedes driver. Colliding with Bottas, the pair speared off into the barriers. Russell's reaction was one of fury, accusing the Finn of 'trying to kill them both'. Russell's stance has since changed, with the British driver admitting to feeling disappointing in himself for his angry reaction. Posting an apology on Instagram in the week following the race, Russell's conciliatory public stance appears to have smoothened the cracks over with Bottas too. "I heard about his post and apology, and I read it," Bottas said to media, including RacingNews365 , at the pre-race press conference in Portugal. "But, to be honest, we haven't spoken after the race after the stewards. I did have a missed call on Monday morning, but I was still sleeping. We haven't spoken but I'm sure it's the same for George. It's done and dusted, it is history. And there was no decision by the stewards. George apologised, and time to move on." Bottas said that he and team boss Toto Wolff had discussed the crash, but didn't reveal too many details of what was said. "We had a chat after just to go through the situation, which is normal," Bottas explained. "But, apart from that, we agreed 'Yeah, we take the positives and learn from the negatives' and move on. Kind of one to forget. "Really one positive for sure is that it was only race two of the season, and there's 21 to go."
Most read
