Bottas could only finish 12th in Baku, 🧸enduring arguably the most difficult race of his F1 career to date.

The Finn struggled to stay with Sebastian Vettel during the opening stint of the race, before droppinꦐg behind Lando Norris during the pit stop phase.

The Mercedes dri🐭ver was running in tenth but dropped to 14th after struggling for tyre temperaturꦡe on the Safety Car restart.

“Yes, it was quite similar feeling to yesterday’s and also Friday,” Bottas said. “Mainly the main issue was lack of pace, and just not being quick enough. Today, quite early on in the race I could see that I just couldn’t quite match the cars ahead, especially when the Aston Mar💞tin was ahead of me, I just couldn’t kee꧙p up. Still, I’m confused and it’s really weird.”

Bottas dism𓆉issed💜 suggestions that the difference in rear wing configurations between Hamilton and his own car was the reason for his struggles.

“I think it’s something we need to review but we know it’s not going to be much, it’s going to be, maximum, one-tenth, so I don’t think that’s the key thing, because we started the weekend with the same wing and I’ve been behind Lewis all the time by quite a big margin,” 🌜Bottas added.

“I can’t remember having this kind of weekend before. Yes, there were a few weekends when I’ve had bad sessions but always, at some poꦯint, I had the pace. But this weekend it’s been all the time li🤡ke this, and during the whole weekend I still haven’t understood what is wrong. I know myself where’s the limit and I cannot go faster than this, and then you’re still six, seven, eight tenths behind.

“It’s not🎀 normal, so it’s something we need to understand before goin💛g to France.”