Valtteri Bottas described his final laps of the British Grand Prix as if it were 'like driving on ice' as he tried to fend off Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel for the race win.
Bottas was on worn Medium tyres towards the latter stages of the race and was slowly clawing the gap back to Vettel until the Safety Car was called out for the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson who had buried himself into the barrier at the exit of Turn 1.
Ferrari and Red Bull serviced their drivers for fresh Soft tyres while both Bottas and team-mate Lewis Hamilton stayed out, giving the Finn the race lead.
After the second Safety Car period, caused by the crash between Carlos Sainz Jr. and Romain Grosjean had ended, the Finn once again came under attack from the championship leader.
Bottas defended his position for several laps but was eventually overhauled by Vettel, and also lost ground to Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, coming home fourth.
"After the first Safety Car restart, I was leading, it was actually quite OK," said Bottas.
"It was only a couple of laps where he had a proper shot. But then after the second Safety Car, initially it was fine, but he started getting really close and I had to push every lap like a qualifying lap.
"I think it was about five laps before the end, it was like driving on ice, I started to lose all grip, especially from the rear end. The traction was getting weaker. That's why he was getting close to me out of slow-speed corners and getting DRS.
"I was really trying everything I could to defend, but it was really a matter of time. The same thing for Lewis and for Kimi. We tried, but nothing we could do."
Bottas moved into fifth-place in the Drivers' Championship, jumping Max Verstappen, who failed to finish the race due to a brake-by-wire failure.
