Villeneuve: Bottas 'embarrassing' in Brazil

Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve has offered a scathing assessment of Valtteri Bottas' Brazilian Grand Prix performance, branding his drive 'embarrassing'.

With Lewis Hamilton starting the race in the pitlane due to a crash in qualifying, Mercedes' hopes largely fell on the shoulders of the Finn, but despite starting in pole position he finished second behind Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.

The vital moment for Bottas came in the first corner, as he allowed the German to beat him into the turn and was unable to get beyond the Ferrari for the rest of the race. Villeneuve didn't hold back in his criticism.

"It was a great drive from Vettel, he won it at the start," the Canadian told Autosport.

"He was aggressive.

"When you see what the Mercedes was capable of, you just have to look at Lewis and Bottas wasn't up to pace. It's embarrassing for Bottas."

Villeneuve went on to compare the team-mates and admitted that it was clear to see who was better following Hamilton's miraculous comeback from last position into fourth.

He added: "Lewis finished around three seconds behind him when he started from the pits.

"It's embarrassing. He simply is not on the pace of Hamilton. It's been like that all year. That's his level, which is a good number two."