Valtteri Bottas is vowing to "keep pushing" as "fine margins" were all that separated him and Lewis Hamilton in 2020.

Two weeks ago in Turkey, the contrast couldn't have been bigger between the two Mercedes drivers, with Hamilton producing another wet-weather masterclass to claim victory, while Bottas spun six times, including twice alone on the opening lap, en route to P14.

It was a result that saw the Briton wrap up his sixth championship since 2014 and tie Michael Schumacher with seven in total.

But while that battle might be over, Bottas is keen to at least recover from his Istanbul disaster over the final Middle East tripleheader.

“There are still three races, so to get the overall picture from this season there’s still a lot you can do and try to get a positive ending,” he said ahead of this weekend's Bahrain GP.

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“It’s a fact that for me the championship is lost, but I still keep pushing and if I look back at this year there are many positives I can take.

“I have been able to improve in many areas, for sure not still enough to win the title, but I’ll keep pushing."

The current points gap between Hamilton and Bottas sits at 110 points after 14 races, but the 31-year-old is adamant that doesn't reflect fairly on the true difference between them.

“Yes, there were some unlucky races where I lost some points, but there were also races where Lewis was better than me and that’s, in the end, how he made the difference," he claimed.

“Sometimes it was just very fine margins about how qualifying or the race ended up, in terms of what kind of strategy I was pushing for or how things ended up.

“You know, in this sport, the points difference can look pretty big now, I know, but, in the end, it comes down fine margins and I’ve been unable to be consistently at such a top-level as Lewis has this year and that made the difference. It’s not a lot but it was enough to win. 

“That’s something I’ll keep pushing on for the future because I feel I’m getting better each year," he added.

“That gives me hope and motivation and that will to push more and try to keep growing for the future, so I’m looking forward to next year.”

Commenting on his teammate, Hamilton echoed many of Bottas' points and praising his performance.

"Valtteri is due respect. I think you’ve got to remember who he’s driving up against. It’s not easy being my teammate," he said.

“He comes in weekend-in, weekend-out, with the same mentality, never moaning, complaining ‘Something’s wrong with the car’, it’s just ‘I’ve got to do a better job’.

“I don’t know any other driver who does that here. I think mentally he is one of the strongest drivers.

"We’ve seen this year, I think, a lot of the qualifying it was just small margins. Closing the gap in qualifying has made it quite challenging. He already did last year, but even more so this year.

“If you look at the race weekends, it was so close, but of course the gap [between first and second] is seven points and then that consistently over a period time… Valtteri was also unfortunate this year with some of the issues, so the gap is bigger.”