Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas says he isn't feeling any pressure despite finishing fourth in the Canadian Grand Prix after team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton won the race in controversial circumstances.
After making a mistake in qualifying, the Finn had to settle for sixth on the grid. A tough start to the race also saw him get jumped by Renault's Nico Hulkenberg which saw his afternoon's work become even more difficult.
"I have no pressure," said Bottas. "I’m happy about the situation, how things have been going since the start of the year and really enjoying it.
"Yesterday I made a mistake and at the end of qualifying I was maybe trying too much to recover, but that can happen. I wouldn’t say that anything from the last couple of races had anything to do with pressure, including this weekend, so I can’t confirm that.
"I don’t think that’s what happened and I can say there’s no pressure."
Once Bottas had made his own pit stop on lap 30, he came out behind both of the Renaults. However, Bottas quickly caught them and got into a tough fight with Daniel Ricciardo, which Bottas described as 'on the limit'.
"It was actually a pretty good fight with Daniel," he added. "Sometimes he was defending quite at the limit of the regulations, because he was kind of waiting for me to make the move and then he would kind of block me after, at pretty high speeds.
"I wasn’t complaining, because I like hard racing, so it was on the limit. It was some good defending from him and definitively didn’t make it easy for me to get past. But it was all OK."
In the latter stages of the race, the Finn was able to pit for soft tyres with three laps remaining to claim the point available for the fastest lap of the race, ensuring he eased the pain of Hamilton's victory and subsequent points gain over him – but admits he can't be satisfied with the result.
"For sure I can’t be too satisfied with P4. At least I made up a couple of places and also got the extra point for the fastest lap – that is positive.
"The beginning of the race was tougher than what I was hoping for, I lost one position after being boxed in; in Turn 2, then there was a bit of a train of cars with DRS in the beginning and I was quite a bit limited by engine overheating and also brake overheating, so I couldn’t really get close enough to push past.
"I was kind of just waiting for the opportunities and eventually they all boxed. By the time they stop I had already lost a lot of time for the top three cars and then I was OK in clean air. It was OK, no big issues, the second stint felt quick but everything came down to what happened yesterday.
"That’s how it is."
