Formula 1: Will Valtteri Bottas win a race in 2018?

Valtteri Bottas has not won a Formula 1 race since he won the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Will he change that before the 2018 season ends?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motosport’s Valtteri Bottas last won a Formula 1 race when he won the 2017 season finale, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He has not been victorious in any of the 17 races that have taken place so far in the 21-race 2018 season.

That said, Bottas has certainly not lacked the speed that it takes to win races up to this point in the season. He led laps in three of the first four races of the season, but he was unable to win any of them. Most notably, he was leading the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth race of the season, with under three laps to go, but he ran over a piece of debris, causing his car’s right rear tire to shred. He also led laps in the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix.

But even since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the 29-year-old Finn has not lacked speed. He has led laps in four of the last eight races, including the British Grand Prix. In this race, he led 14 laps but was passed by Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with just six laps to go.

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Bottas also led four laps in the German Grand Prix and was running in second place right behind teammate Lewis Hamilton with only a handful of laps to go. With newer tires than Hamilton, Bottas likely could have passed him, but Mercedes ordered the two drivers to hold their respective positions to avoid a potential collision.

Bottas led seven laps in the Italian Grand Prix, but he did so as a result of team orders to slow down Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, thus helping Hamilton, who went on to win the race. While he did lead these seven laps, he certainly did not have the pace he needed to win the race.

In the Russian Grand Prix, however, he did. He took the pole position for this race and was dominant early on. But nearly halfway through the race, Mercedes ordered him to let Hamilton pass him. Hamilton then went on to win the race while Bottas finished in second place.

This leads to one question: will Bottas win a race before the 2018 season ends?

Of the four races remaining on this year’s schedule, the three-time Grand Prix winner has won one. His lone victory in these four races, which are the United States Grand Prix, the Mexican Grand Prix, the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, is his aforementioned victory in last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

That said, Hamilton has already stated that he would be more than willing to repay the favor that Bottas did for him in the Russian Grand Prix by letting him win a race before the season concludes.

As a result, with Hamilton having all but won this year’s championship, it may not come down to whether or not Bottas can truly go out and beat Hamilton again when it comes to whether or not Bottas will win a race before the season ends.

However, Bottas has admitted that he would rather go out and win a race on his own than be handed a victory by his teammate, so whether or not Hamilton actually ends up giving him a race victory before the 2018 season reaches its conclusion is still very much up in the air.

Will Valtteri Bottas win a race before the 2018 Formula 1 season comes to a close, or will he enter the 2019 season having not won a race since he won the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Which of the final four races on the 2018 schedule do you believe he has the best chance to win?