Valtteri Bottas admits he struggled to simply keep his Mercedes on track during a dreadful Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday.
In wet, slippery conditions, the Finn spun twice with Esteban Ocon on the first lap and had four more rotations en route to a lowly 14th place finish at Istanbul Park, bringing his total to six.
As a result, on a day when he needed to outscore teammate Lewis Hamilton by eight points to keep his championship hopes alive, Bottas was instead lapped by the eventual race winner.
“That was a long race, such a long day,” he said post-race. “Obviously, the first lap everything went wrong. I don’t know if it was Daniel or someone in the first corner spinning and I was avoiding them and spun as well.
“I had contact in Turn 9 and the car was not the same anymore and I struggled to stay on track. I couldn’t stay on track. The steering wheel was like this and there was a piece missing from the front wing.
“It was a survival and not good.”
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As for Hamilton wrapping up his seventh F1 title. matching the record set by Michael Schumacher, Bottas praised his Mercedes teammate.
“He deserves it fully. He was better than us this year overall on average,” he said.
“He fully deserves it so really good for him but I will try to beat him next year.”