Bottas: "I wouldn’t call it sacrifice"

Valtteri Bottas insists that his race wasn't sacrificed for his teammate Lewis Hamilton. The Finn was left out on a long first stint in order to hold up the leading Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen after Hamilton emerged from his late first stop five seconds behind.

Bottas eventually pitted later than most for his one and only stop of the race and came out behind Max Verstappen, though the plan for Hamilton to hunt down Raikkonen had played off well.

Speaking to the media after the race, the Finn said that he felt his race wasn't compromised for his teammate and that he was still able to run his own pace having been a distance behind the leading pair during the opening stages.

“When we went through everything, all the scenarios for the race, we saw that with me starting fourth and Lewis from third behind the Ferrari, we saw no point for us to try and opt for the optimal strategy and saw an opportunity for me to go long,” said Bottas.

Bottas eventually found himself on the back of Verstappen in a battle for the final podium position, the two colliding after the Dutchman moved under braking for the first corner, a move he later receieved a five-second penalty for.

“I think there were a couple of proper overtaking opportunities for me, including that one,” Bottas added.

“I think there’s a very clear rule that when you’re defending, if a car is there you need to leave room for that car and he didn’t, that’s why we touched because he moved and it was a very clear move.”