Valtteri Bottas insists he is still in the fight for the Formula 1 championship, despite his sub-par showing at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Bottas entered the summer break as the sport’s in-form driver but admitted post-qualifying that he was slightly confused by his deficit to Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
While Hamilton went on to triumph at Spa-Francorchamps, Bottas – on Soft tyres – was overhauled at the restart by Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen, the pair equipped with Ultrasofts.
Bottas trailed home in fifth, slipping 41 points behind title leader Sebastian Vettel, and 34 adrift of Hamilton.
“If I perform well because it's still eight races to go that is a big amount of points," said Bottas.
“The guys in front of me in the championship haven't had any DNFs, hopefully of course not for us, but maybe it can happen.
"But I don't think that way. I don't let those negative things come to my mind.
“For sure at some point I understand if the team wants to go for the championship and really make sure that at least one of the guys wins it but it's a bit early.
“We need to go race by race and every race there are different situations.”
On his overall performance in Belgium, Bottas said: “This has been the most difficult weekend for me, so I need to learn a lot from it because I wasn't quick enough.
“I need to analyse my mistakes quickly, and then hopefully come back stronger this week in Monza.”
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