Bottas: My race pace was ‘pretty identical’ to Hamilton

Valtteri Bottas says “there was no pace difference” between himself and Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Lewis Hamilton during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Bottas had convincingly beaten Hamilton to pole position in Barcelona but lost out at the start as Hamilton claimed the inside lead and snatched the lead at Turn 1.

The reigning world champion controlled proceedings as he pulled clear in the opening stint, before opening another sizeable gap to Bottas following a late Safety Car period to secure his third win of the season and retake the championship lead.

“Honestly from my feeling, there was no pace difference at all,” Bottas said.

“I know the difference, when you are at the front you can control the pace, you can manage the tyres completely the way you want in the free air.

“At this type of track it makes such a difference, you feel it even when you are four seconds away, you feel it in the corners that you are sliding more. It doesn’t need much more sliding and your tyres are going to be finished earlier.

“I am not worried at all about the race pace, I think it was pretty identical. I think the main thing is who ends up first after Turns 1 and 2.”

Bottas blamed his sluggish getaway on “abnormal clutch vibrations” he had never experienced before and insisted he would have done nothing differently if he had the chance to replay the start.

“Here if I do it again, I wouldn’t have done it any different,” Bottas explained. “We are still investigating and we can definitely see the vibration on the clutch and the abnormal behaviour which has cost me that few crucial metres on the way to Turn 1.

“As a driver it’s annoying but it can happen but knowing this team we will fix it and it won’t happen again. I definitely would have had the opportunity to carry more speed if I was on the outside of Lewis, I could have carried speed and maybe been on the inside for Turn 2.

“But with Sebastian on the outside if I carried that we would have collided and there was no point doing that and ruining the race. Normally being in the middle is the worst place to be and I was there.”