Part-time Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas is celebrating his first win of the season, posting a carousel of images from the FNLD GRVL cycling competition in Finland.
There’s no doubt that Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas is a local champion in his native Finland. The 10-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner is arguably the country’s most successful athlete of modern times, competing wheel to wheel with the world’s fastest in the world’s premier motorsport competition for more than a decade.
However, Bottas has discovered a new passion in the later stages of his career, away from the more manicured asphalt of the Formula 1 track (and the four wheels and 1.6l V6 turbocharged hybrid engines). Since meeting his partner, Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, Bottas has been spending more and more time on winding country lanes.
He’s made no secret of his new love of cycling, often posting new routes to his social media in between Formula 1 races and insane times to his Strava app… and his most recent post signals the star’s first gravel win of his new sporting career.
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Sharing to his 4.4 million followers, Bottas announced he had won his first gravel race of his fledgling career, cycling a gruelling 114km across unforgiving terrain in Lahti, Finland, in the global FNLD GRVL competition.
“My first win on gravel 🥇 114km ‘lakes course’ @fnldgrvl was awesome 🇫🇮 good racing on the happiest gravel roads on earth 😊 Thanks gent @rickzabel for not sprinting me out 😉 Proud of hero @tiffanycromwell for winning the main 177km ‘midnight sun’ women’s race ❤️”
In the warmth of the European summer, the Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber driver finished with a seriously quick time of 03:35:32, crossing the finish line at the same time as German road bicycle racer Rick Zabel, although Bottas took the all-important win.
Transitioning from the precision and speed of Formula 1 to the rugged and unpredictable nature of gravel cycling is no small feat. With speculation heating up regarding Bottas’ full-time Formula 1 seat next season, there’s no doubt he remains a true competitor at heart, regardless of whether he’s on four wheels or two.