Valtteri Bottas admits he can see his Formula 1 title chances “drifting away” after finishing third in the Spanish Grand Prix.
A poor start dropped the Finn to fourth in the early laps before re-passing Lance Stroll for third, but, despite occasional spurts of pace, switching back to soft tyres at his second stop proved the wrong decision as he failed to challenge Max Verstappen for second.
Bottas later blamed his poor start and the difficulty to overtake in Barcelona for his result, but with the gap in the standings between himself and Lewis Hamilton already 43 points, he knows catching his teammate will be a huge mountain to climb.
“[I’m] initially disappointed, of course. It’s far from ideal,” Valtteri conceded.
“I have no clue actually what the points’ difference is, but it’s way too big. I can see again the championship drifting away.
“We’ll take a couple of days to look at everything and see what went wrong.
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“Obviously at this point, [it’s] very disappointing. I know I’ll always bounce back, and no doubt in Spa, as always, I’ll be in full mental health, giving everything I have.
“But for now, I just want to be somewhere else than here right now.”
For Bottas, 2020 is already bearing many hallmarks of recent seasons where a strong start soon peters out.
And the most frustrating part of the Mercedes driver, is that luck has been at the heart of his recent struggles.
“At this moment, I can’t say,” he said on where his year has gone wrong. “I had a good start in the first race, and the pace all season, every single race, the pace has been there.
“Qualifying has been super close every single time with Lewis, sometimes he beats me, sometimes I beat him. It’s small margins.
“So, I don’t know the reason for now.
“There were a couple of shitty races for me in Silverstone, with bad luck,” he noted.
“Apart from the first race, it’s been pretty bad. There’s not been a weekend that has gone smoothly and without issue, apart from the first one, so a pretty bad season so far. Obviously, that’s disappointing.
“[It’s] nice to have a break. Hopefully, we still have many more races to go, maybe even up to 10 or something like this. I would hope so. So far, far from ideal.”