Valtteri Bottas admits he is happy to see an end to the speculation after his seat at Mercedes was confirmed for 2020.

The Finn's future was one of the stories that dominated the summer break as the Brackley-based squad decided between him and reserve driver Esteban Ocon for next season.

But, after a week of reports indicated Bottas would be staying, the announcement came on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

"For sure that’s always good news when you get things confirmed for next year and it’s definitively all that what I wanted," he said.

"I believe the team will be strong for the rest of the year and also next year. I see no reasons why it wouldn’t be. Obviously that made me very happy, to hear it and to get it all done, finally."

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Asked about the timeline of the agreement to extend for one more year, Bottas continued: "I think it was last weekend we signed, paperwork was done, I kind of had to wait a little bit until then but I still had a good break and lots of fun and everything but I’m happy now."

After a strong start to 2019, with two wins in the first four races, it seemed the 30-year-old had overcome the risk of being replaced by Ocon.

But a tricky run of races has seen Bottas fall 62 points behind teammate Lewis Hamilton and he knew that results weren't the only consideration.

"To be honest, going into the summer break, in this sport you know that while nothing is signed anything can happen," he admitted.

"Obviously when it comes to the driver, the decisions are made by the teams and there are many different things the teams look at and those are the kind of things that make a difference when they make their choices.

"The whole situation between me and Esteban was very openly spoken, so I had to wait until last weekend," Bottas added.

"For sure I was thinking about other options, just in case, because you never want to be left between two chairs, so for sure I was trying to make plans for something else, but then things started to go the right way and then I saw that it was just better to commit to this as it is.

"As I said, it makes me very happy to know about the future, I don’t need to worry about it now, I can really focus on the job and after the last couple of races, I really want to have a strong result here and a really strong end of the year."