Hamilton insists it's "his fault" he lost 2.5s to Bottas under VSC

Lewis Hamilton has insisted it's "his fault" he lost 2.5 seconds worth of time to his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday.

Bottas recorded his second win of the season in Baku, to take him above his team-mate in the drivers' standings. Hamilton was trying his best to stick with the Finn, who redeemed himself following heartbreak at the circuit last season.

"I lost two-and-a-half seconds, or whatever it us, under the VSC, so had to regain that and, with only nine laps to go, that was not so easy," Hamilton said. "So, that was my fault and something I will work on. There's something I can fix on my dash to make sure that doesn't happen again."

Pierre Gasly's Red Bull stopped working towards the end of the race, and with the Frenchman able to get to a secure place off the track, the VSC was called upon. The five-time world champion, Hamilton, started two-and-a-half seconds adrift of Bottas before the VSC period on lap 40 and ended lap 41 three-and-a-half seconds off his team-mate.

"It is pretty similar but between us there are some differences," Hamilton said on his dash, which he is allowed to customise for periods such as this. "We work with a personal electronics engineer, we work (on) starts and the dash, these kind of things.

"I've been pleased with the information and I think I managed to be close enough to the delta time under the VSC. It was a really important restart."