Manager: Bottas 'back to normal'

Valtteri Bottas' manager on Tuesday said he expects the Finn to return to action this weekend in the Malaysian grand prix.

After sitting out Melbourne with his injured lower back and recovering in Indonesia last week, the 25-year-old Finn arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

He will be at the Sepang circuit on Wednesday.

It emerges, however, that Williams has engine partner Mercedes' reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein on standby, should Bottas not be declared fit to race.

"We're fully supportive of Valtteri's determination to race in Malaysia," said the Grove team, "but he will need final approval from the FIA medics on Thursday."

Bottas' manager, Didier Coton, is confident.

"Valtteri is in very good shape," he told the BBC.

"He will have to take the FIA medical, which I expect him to pass. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't pass it -- he tells me he is back to normal."

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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