Tyre woes cost Bottas in podium fight at COTA

Valtteri Bottas was left frustrated after tyre struggles through the closing stages of the United States Grand Prix cost him a possible podium finish, with the Mercedes Formula 1 driver eventually crossing the line fifth.

Bottas spent much of the race at the Circuit of The Americas on Sunday running third, but rose to second when Sebastian Vettel made an unexpected second stop late on in order to cover off Max Verstappen.

As Bottas struggled to keep his soft Pirelli tyres alive - not for the first time this season - Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was able to battle past before both Vettel and Verstappen also made overtakes, prompting Mercedes to bring the Finn in for a late swap to ultra-soft tyres.

"I think all the way until maybe 20 laps to go, it was all OK. The pace seemed to be good," Bottas said.

"But the long stint with the soft tyre in the end, the last 10 laps, just the pace was dropping quite a bit. The guys who switched to a two-stop seemed to be having the edge at that point.

"I tried everything I could to defend, but it was too late. Then we had to stop in the end and unfortunately that's it, we couldn't react earlier than that.

"The problem was in the second stint, we had to manage a lot to make the tyres last. but there was Sebastian ahead of me and Kimi was putting pressure all the time, so I couldn't make enough tyre saving to make the tyres last."

By finishing fifth, Bottas was mathematically ruled out of contention for this year's F1 drivers' title as Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton took victory at COTA, but the Finn did play a role in Mercedes clinching its fourth straight constructors' championship on Sunday.