Bottas reflects on challenging weekend in Sakhir

Comparisons between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell on the basis of their completely different races last Sunday are easy to make, but according to the Finn, who has signed up with Mercedes for next year,  are not entirely fair.

"In the race, I just tried to make the most of it," Bottas explained to Autosport.com. "I knew that it's going to be a long race ahead, so I don't think about [comparisons with Russell].”

"But now thinking about it, for sure, if you don't know things, then I'd have looked like a complete c**t and a fool. So that's not nice.. ... It was a pretty bad race for me from that side, and it will be very easy for people to say a new guy comes in and beats the guy who's been in the team for a few years. So it is not ideal," said Bottas.

The chaos in Mercedes' pit lane caused the Finn to return on a set of used tyres amid a field of drivers with fresher tyres and thus more pace. Russell had also been put on a set of new mediums, and managed to make his way into the top ten again at lightning speed.

"That was a nightmare, being on the old, hard tyres, that had already lost a bit of temperature in the pit stop.”