Bottas: "It was hard to judge where to brake"

It was a dramatic race for Valtteri Bottas. The Finn braked too late on the opening lap, knocking Lando Norris and Sergio Perez out of the race. Max Verstappen also suffered significant damage and had to settle for tenth place. Bottas knows where it went wrong.

The track was damp at the start of the race, due to a poor start with lots of wheelspin he lost control on the braking of the first corner. “Obviously my mistake", Bottas told Motorsport.com. “I was the one coming from behind, and it’s up to me to brake early enough."

Whether Bottas was distracted by Norris: “Possibly a little bit. You lose a little bit the sense of where you actually compared to Turn 1, but that’s racing, and I should have braked earlier. It is hard with the spray and not exactly knowing how much grip there is, especially when you are right behind someone you lose quite a bit of grip.”

“I could see that I lost some temperature of the tyres in the formation lap. That could be the cause, but yeah, we'll have a look", he continued.

The Finn will start the next race in Belgium with a five-place grid penalty. “I’ll take it, obviously it’s not ideal, but at least in the next race it is possible to overtake so it’s not like the weekend is over", he added. "It’s just going to make it more difficult but if that’s the decision, that’s what it is.”