Bottas not convinced of blame in Hamilton collision

Valtteri Bottas says he was disappointed to have his Bahrain Grand Prix hampered by a drive-through penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton at the first corner.

The Finn made a superb start from sixth to jump to third as the field thundered into turn one, but after going for what he felt was a viable gap, Hamilton turned in and the pair made contact.

Though both survived the impact to continue on, Bottas fared better, resuming in third as Hamilton dropped to a brief low of ninth position.

With stewards investigating the incident, they would determine the Williams driver to be at fault, hitting him with a drive-through penalty just as he had taken the first of his two stops for the race. Indeed, though Bottas admits it was an unfortunate incident, he was frustrated to be penalised for it.

"I committed to brake late into Turn One, I saw a gap on the inside 50 metres before the corner and I thought "OK, that's going to be my spot" but I think Lewis didn't expect me to come on the inside, so we touched. It's a shame because it cost us a lot today

"Of course I wasn't happy when I was told about the penalty... I don't know what to say, really, I need to have a better look at what happened, but I think this kind of things can happen, going into such a tight Turn One like this one, so it was a shame."

The Finn would eventually recover to ninth position to pick up two points.