Cooling miscalculation hindered Bottas' run

Valtteri Bottas' run to eighth in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix was the best the Finn could manage in a race in which the Mercedes driver was forced to deal with an engine overheating issue.

Bottas faced a difficult challenge from the outset after his qualifying crash on Saturday led to a gearbox change and a subsequent relegation to 15th on the grid.

On a track where overtaking opportunities are few and far between, the 28-year-old struggled to move up through the field, but circumstances also complicated his task.

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"We expected it was going to be difficult, and we knew that you need a big pace difference delta to overtake if the other guy doesn't do any mistake, and especially if there's a train of cars like I had in the whole second stint," Bottas said.

"There was not a lot of things happening that were really helping me.

"I think with the VSC maybe I gained a little bit, stopping under that, but other than that it was a pretty frustrating race in the end because we do have a good car but there was nothing I could do."

Furthermore, Bottas' attempts to move forward were hindered by an overheating issue of his power unit, a problem which also partly affected team mate Lewis Hamilton, who was told to turn down his engine in the closing stages of the race.

"I think there was something wrong with the calculation for the cooling we estimated for today so I couldn't really be close to other cars and couldn't put pressure on other cars for long.

"I could only do about two laps and then I had to back off and try again."

Interestingly, and contrary to the views of Mercedes' rivals, Bottas believes the German team no longer enjoys a significant advantage on the power front this season, as his vain attempts to get the measure of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg demonstrated.

"The engine difference is not massive anymore," he said.

"We still have a bit of an advantage over Renault, but it's not massive and those cars are not too bad in the corners. I couldn't get any closer really. All the teams are closer so that makes it difficult."

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