Valtteri Bottas turned the journey between Formula 1 race weekends into an endurance challenge, riding around 350 kilometres from Sepang, Malaysia, to Singapore over three days. The Cadillac driver reached the city-state on Wednesday, ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Instead of taking a flight or a car after the Bahrain Grand Prix was staged at Sepang, Bottas set off on a gravel bike. He shared updates from the route on social media, including night riding by bike light and stretches along quieter gravel and dirt roads. His first recorded stage covered 56.6 kilometres in just over two hours. On Monday, he rode a further 161.9 kilometres in almost six hours, passing through Malaysia’s countryside on the way south.

Bottas began the trip after a frustrating Sunday at Sepang, where he spun into the gravel and retired on lap nine in damp conditions after gambling on slick tyres. The ride gave him a very different kind of race: several days in the saddle, changing terrain and tropical heat, with the Marina Bay paddock waiting at the finish.

Cycling is a serious pursuit for the Finn, not a one-off stunt. He regularly rides gravel and road bikes, has competed in cycling events and co-founded FNLD GRVL, a gravel race held in his home country. His partner, Australian cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, is a professional road and gravel rider, and the two often train together. Cromwell shared footage of their rides around the Sepang coast and nearby palm-oil plantations in the days before the Grand Prix.

Bottas’s three-day trip ended with the final stretch across the Causeway into Singapore on Wednesday afternoon. He will now trade the bike for the Cadillac as the team prepares for the Singapore Grand Prix, which runs from 9 to 11 October.

Sources: Reuters; Malay Mail; AsiaOne.