Valtteri Bottas expressed disappointment at his narrow defeat at the Bahrain Grand Prix – but also exuded optimism at Mercedes’ race pace.
Bottas qualified third at Sakhir, with Sebastian Vettel leading a front-row lockout for Ferrari, but moved into second at the start, at the expense of Kimi Raikkonen.
Bottas slipped adrift of Vettel after the first stint, the gap hovering around six seconds, but was equipped with Mediums, as opposed to the Softs employed by Ferrari.
Bottas used his longer-lasting compound to effect by closing down Vettel during the closing stages and began the final lap within a second of his rival, though was unable to produce an overtaking chance, and came home as runner-up.
“The race is 57 laps and Sebastian got to the flag the quickest so they won,” said Bottas.
“Of course, it’s disappointing once it comes down to being so close and once you’re catching up to somebody with that kind of rate.
“I have to say that the last three laps, once I started getting closer and closer, my tyres started to go off and the last lap was really, really difficult and I actually had a couple of big moments.
“It’s disappointing, but I think what is positive is that actually the race pace we had was more competent and we could put a bit more pressure on them than we expected to.”
Expanding on his slender opportunity on the final lap, Bottas said: “Once I was approaching Turn 1 for the last time behind him, and having probably the best opportunity I think I was going to have I saw that he definitely knew what I was going to do or maybe do.
“I saw him before he started braking, he turned inside. I kind of braked later as well than normal and saw that he was going to block it so… And he didn’t go wide or anything and he still had a good run to Turn 4 so he was awake.
“He knew that was his place to defend and I was maybe going to try something there so… gutted.”
