Bottas: I had pace but nothing I could do

Valtteri Bottas feels his superior pace to Kimi Raikkonen was restrained stuck behind the Ferrari driver due to the limited overtaking opportunities at Monaco.

After qualifying in fifth place, the Mercedes driver was unable to make any inroads to his position behind Raikkonen and spent the whole Monaco Grand Prix facing the rear of the Finn’s Ferrari.

Bottas admitted his frustrations at being stuck behind Raikkonen with only seeing a chance to pass “a couple of times” but accepted his fifth place having felt encouraged by his race pace looking towards future races.

“It can be very frustrating when you feel you have the pace but there’s nothing you can do with it,” Bottas said. “It is extremely difficult here to overtake and I was never close enough to Kimi that I could try to attack.

“I think he struggled with his front tyres more than I, but his rears looked in very good condition and he could always get good traction out of the last corner and also into the tunnel, so I never get close to him in the places where you can overtake here unfortunately.

“I felt I had better pace than the cars in front of me but I knew that as soon as I would get close to them there was nothing I could do. I know now what others felt being behind me and having good pace but having nothing they could do with it.

“There a couple of times, coming into the main straight, when I was getting close and I was doing everything I could to get closer, get the slipstream and try to have a go but he always had such good traction coming out of the last corner so I could never be close enough to try and dive on the inside.”

Bottas has slipped down to fourth place in the Formula 1 world drivers’ championship as Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo claimed victory in Monaco.