Disappointed Bottas admits "I can see again the championship drifting away"

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has admitted he can see the Formula 1 championship title "drifting away" after a 43-point gap opened between himself and Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas' season got off to a flying start with victory in Austria, but the Finn has since finished in the top two once.

A poor start to the Spanish Grand Prix, the sixth race in just seven weeks, dropped Bottas from second to fourth and, although taking just five laps to find a way past the Racing Point of Lance Stroll, he would remain third for the duration.

Heading into the season, Bottas was viewed by many to be the primary, and possibly only, threat to Mercedes team-mate Hamilton for the world title. Now, with a deficit of 43-points and also trailing Red Bull driver Max Verstappen in the standings, the Finn admits his chances for success are fading.

Bottas said: “[I'm] Disappointed of course. [It's] Far from ideal and I have no clue actually what the points difference is, but it’s way too big and I can see again the championship drifting away.

“[We] will take a couple of days to look at everything and see what went wrong and again move on, but obviously at this point it’s very disappointing.

“But yes I know I will always bounce back and no doubt in Spa, as always, I will be in full mental health, giving everything I have, but for now I want to be somewhere else than here right now.”

Giving an overview of his 2020 campaign to date, the Finn conceded:“Apart from the first race, it’s been pretty bad.

"There has been not a weekend that has gone smoothly and without issues apart from the first one, so a pretty bad season so far.”

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