Valtteri Bottas says he is at a loss to provide reasons for his relative lack of pace during Formula 1’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
Bottas converted pole position into the lead on the opening lap but was unable to break clear of his opponents through the first stint.
Bottas was overhauled by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton a third of the way into the race and was then passed by Max Verstappen shortly after the pit stop phase.
The Finn remained within a couple of seconds of Verstappen but relinquished several seconds due to an exhaust sensor problem.
Bottas grabbed the extra point for fastest lap but was forced to settle for third position, leaving him 37 points behind Hamilton after the opening trio of races.
“When you start from pole position there’s only one target for the race and that is to win the race and that didn’t happen today, so I’m disappointed,” he said.
“I don’t really know why in the first stint I didn’t have the pace.
“It felt like everything, in terms of race start and re-start was good from our side but I could see quite quickly in the race that we just didn’t have the pace, like Lewis and Max had and I don’t really have an explanation.”
Bottas felt his pace in the second stint, having switched to Hard tyres, was relatively stronger but thwarted by the tricky warm-up issues.
“It was pretty bad, we knew that our warm up of tyres was pretty tricky but afterwards, once we got heat into the tyres, it was actually not bad and better than with the Mediums,” he said.
“We’ve got lots of things to look at, to analyse and to learn for me in the next three days before we start focusing on the next race.”
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