Williams driver Valtteri Bottas was hoping for a trouble free season finale in Abu Dhabi but it all went wrong for the Finn follwoing a controversial pit stop release by his team and a subsequent penalty.
Bottas made up some precious ground in the early laps of the race, running as high as 5th, but upon completion of his first pit stop he made contact with Jenson Button's McLaren, damaging his front wing and forcing him to stop for repairs.
But it went from bad to worse when the race stewards slapped the Williams driver with a five-second penalty, served later in the race, which put a definitive damper on Bottas' hopes.
"It was not my day, again," rued the Finn. "But we really didn't have the pace we thought we should have, either."
On the subject of his pit stop release which was deemed 'unsafe' by the stewards' panel, Bottas said he just took his cue from the lights, as usual.
"I got the green light from the team to go, so I went on the right hand side of the pit lane. Obviously our side view, from the cockpit, is very limited and before I realised it there was a McLaren pulling into its box and it was too late to avoid it.
"Then I had to come on the next lap for a new front wing and that ruined my race."
Bottas admitted that progress by Williams in the later part of the year had stalled somewhat.
"We haven't been making much progress in this later part of the season, we've been focusing more on next year's car, so it was a little bit expected we'd drop back a bit.
"Still it's a bit disappointing that we finished the year with a poor race when last year we managed to finish the season on a high."
REPORT: Rosberg takes third win in a row to end season
AS IT HAPPENED: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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