Valtteri Bottas "threw away" any chance of winning the Chinese Grand Prix with his mistake behind the Safety Car, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said after the race.
Bottas was fifth when the Safety Car came out for Antonio Giovinazzi's early crash, having stopped for slick tyres, but spun as he attempted to get some heat into his tyres, dropping him down to 12th.
That was the moment a shot at victory was lost according to Wolff, who admitted mistakes like that happen to everyone and he should "forget it".
"He threw it away behind the safety car," Wolff told Sky Sports. "It happens to the best, it was very slippery out there and he lost it and that's when the race was gone.
"He just needs to recover from that now. Analyse it and forget it," added Wolff. "It’s the second race into the season, there are 18 more left."
He eventually finished sixth, almost 50 seconds adrift of winner and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Wolff reckons Bottas' pace showed he would have been capable of a podium at worst had he not spun.
"You could see during the race that he had the pace," he explained. "He was doing Lewis' laptimes at various stages in the race, but once you’re losing so many positions and you’re not in the leading pack anymore, and you have to recover mentally, that is very difficult."
