Mercedes admit strategy was too much for Bottas

Mercedes technical director James Allison describes Valtteri Bottas' performance on Sunday as "valiant" but does admit that the strategy asked too much of the Finn's tyres.

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas was second behind winner and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the majority of the race before a late drop down the grid saw the Finn end up with a P5 finish.

Bottas also made contact with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo on separate occasions.

The 28-year-old had soft tyres for ten laps more than his team-mate did to try and cover Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.

James Allison has praised Bottas' showing in Hungary but he has also admitted that it was difficult for the Finnish driver to keep up the speed for the whole race.

"He had driven an utterly brilliant and valiant race, but we asked him just a little bit too much from rubber that couldn't really go that long final stint," Allison said on Mercedes' YouTube channel.

Allison also added that Mercedes were thinking about a second stop for Bottas when the virtual safety car was present, but took the risk rather than almost ensuring a podium finish.

"It would've been bad for us to find ourselves in no-man's land where we started a VSC stop and it ended up being halfway between," Allison said.

"So, in the end we decided to cling on for our risky second-place strategy, thinking worst case we would finish fourth.

"As it happened, second place didn't work out and it ended up a little worse for Valtteri and for us as a result of those collisions."