Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo both believe Valtteri Bottas got lucky at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix, although both were happy to accept the stewards ruling that he didn't jump the start.
The Mercedes driver got a great start to immediately open a gap to Vettel in second and Ricciardo in third, but both claimed over team radio that they thought he had jumped the start. The stewards even chose to investigate the matter.
However it was deemed that Bottas hadn't, with data showing a reaction time of 0.201 of a second between the lights going out and his car moving.
Vettel questioned that reaction time, believing it was a standard amount of time for a driver to react, which would have meant the rest of the grid reacted much slower than usual.
"First of all to clarify I don’t want to take anything from Valtteri," said the German. "He drove an excellent race, didn’t make a mistake with a difficult car, performed well.
"Normally reaction times are around 0.2s for everyone. I don’t think everyone was that much slower today, that’s why I don’t believe Valtteri was that much quicker.
"I had a strong belief at the time that he jumped the start and it turned out he didn’t and I'm guessing there’s reason to believe he didn’t.
"I just can't imagine his reaction time was 0.2, that would be normal – in my point of view his reaction was unhuman, so…he said earlier he’s not human… he's Finnish!"
Ricciardo believes Bottas got lucky and gussed when the lights would go out, rather than actually reacting to them.
"As Valtteri said the main thing is it was positive [time], the lights were held for a long time, more than normal, it did seem longer. There’s always a window but it did seem longer when you’re there and your revs are high, you’re waiting, waiting. For sure he went and the lights went out, I guess he got lucky.
"I don’t believe he reacted to the lights."
