Valtteri Bottas revealed he had no indication that he had run over a piece of debris before his tyre failed while leading with just three laps to go during the Azerbaijan GP.
The Finn had capitalised on a decision to stay out as long as possible on the Supersoft tyre that he had started the race with, pitting under the Safety Car that was caused by the colliding Red Bulls to switch to the Ultrasoft compound.
He would emerge ahead of long-time race leader Sebastian Vettel, who also decided changed tyres under the Safety Car, and saw the Ferrari driver’s threat fade when an attempted attack at the restart failed.
That seemingly left the path clear for Bottas to take his first in of the season, but on the pit straight a lap later, he would run over a piece of debris causing a near-immediate failure which took him out and gave the win to teammate Lewis Hamilton.
“It is difficult to say anything. Everyone saw what happened. It’s just unfortunate, unlucky,” he said clearly distraught.
“I’ll maybe have 10 pints of beer and be fine. I’ll get through it, it’s part of racing but at the moment it’s very painful.”
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Though some have laid blame at the Baku marshals for failing to pick up the debris, the Mercedes driver just considered the incident one of the perils of a street circuit.
“Street circuits are difficult when there are a lot of crashes,” he claimed. “It is always going to be an issue and this time it is just unlucky.
“I had no idea I had run over anything, I didn’t see or hear anything.”
