Valtteri Bottas revels in George Russell battle at Imola as he takes on old Mercedes team

Valtteri Bottas has revealed how much he enjoyed racing at Imola, with him also battling his old Mercedes team over the course of the Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver swapped Mercedes for Alfa Romeo for the 2022 campaign, and many suggested that he might find himself further down the field than he had been in the Silver Arrows car.

However, the new rules have really shaken up the pecking order, and quite often we have seen his Alfa battling his old team up towards the front end of the midfield.

Indeed, Bottas and George Russell, the man who replaced him at Merc, have battled on more than one occasion this year and, indeed, that was the case in Imola on Sunday, with the Briton coming out on top in the end as he finished fourth to Bottas’ fifth.

There wasn’t a lot between them, though, whilst it was nice to see them obviously keeping it clean a year after they had their mega shunt in similar conditions at the same track, which obviously made things a bit fraught at the time.

They have a decent respect, however, and Bottas said he thoroughly enjoyed the entire race, as well as the battle against his old employers:

“Yes, it was a good race.

“I mean, even with a bit of contact in Turn 2 [on lap 1] – luckily there was not damage. The pit stop for sure compromised the race a bit. After that we had really good pace, I could push flat-out all through the race. I was catching the Mercedes pretty well, and unfortunately didn’t quite have the pace towards the end to overtake them – but good points.”

“Yes – really enjoying [the battle with Mercedes.] It’s really good fun. The upgrades we had this weekend definitely made the car even stronger, so it’s a good feeling.”