Bottas explains theory behind Hamilton deficit in Singapore

Valtteri Bottas said all was not right with his Mercedes car after a crash in first practice at the Singapore Grand Prix, perhaps explaining his sizable deficit to Lewis Hamilton on Friday.

Bottas ended the sessions 1.1 seconds down on his team-mate, who ended Friday as the fastest man on-track.

The Finn lost control of his car at Turn 18 during FP1, which ended his session early and gave Mercedes' mechanics a significant rebuild job.

And Bottas explained that once he was back in the car it did not feel as comfortable as it had previously.

"It was a tricky one. I had a bit of an off moment in FP1, which ended my running a bit early, but everything was feeling okay until then.

"I just lost the back end in one of the corners, and obviously here with no run-offs you pay the price.

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💥😮 @valtteribottas into the barriers at Turn 19 during FP1 . #SingaporeGP #Formula1 #F1

A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1) on Sep 20, 2019 at 3:27am PDT

"FP2, not sure really what was going on. I was lacking pace, every single run, every tyre compound, so I'm not quite sure if everything was right in the car, we need to have a look.

"It just felt like I couldn't go any quicker, but I was one second off the pace.

"The only thing I could really feel, I just felt quite a bit of friction in the steering system. So, I struggled to feel the car properly.

"I doubt everything was 100 percent, but obviously need to have a look [at] what I can do better as well."

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