Hamilton spoiled Bottas Singapore qualifying lap - 'It won't happen again'

Valtteri Bottas says his efforts in final qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix were spoiled by team-mate Lewis Hamilton overtaking him on his outlap.

Bottas could only go fifth-fastest at the Marina Bay Circuit, with Hamilton second to Charles Leclerc.

The Finn had left the pits ahead of Hamilton on the final runs in Q3, but the Brit barged through as Bottas tried to find a gap, forcing his team-mate to back off and lose crucial tyre temperature.

"The first run there was lots of cars," said Bottas. "All weekend we've been needing to have proper out laps to get the tyres switched on, but I only got that in Q1.

"The first run in Q2 was also pretty OK, but after that always traffic affected.

"Then the last run was quite messy. The last run in Q3, no it was not planned [to swap positions].

"I was slowing down because of the Red Bull ahead trying to get a bit of a gap, and I think Lewis didn't know that there was a car ahead of me, he thought I'm just slowing down for fun.

"Obviously it was incorrect and he got ahead, so that I had to slow down again. We've discussed that internally and tried to make sure of ways that it won't happen again, basically. It was not the plan for sure."

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