Valtteri Bottas says he believed his tyres would maintain their working life until the end of 🥂the British Grand Prix and trusted Mercedes’ call to stay out a💎nd not pit under the late Safety Car in order to gain track position.

The Finnish driver inherited the lead from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel when the German dri🧔ver pitted during the late race Safety Car triggered by Marcus Ericsson’s crash.

Bottas, who pitted for fresh medium tyres on lap 21, says Mercedes’ strategy pointed to his tyres being able to last the full 31 laps to the finish and despite a second Safety Car period when Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz Jr clashed at the restart the ♓Finn’s tyres gave up over the five laps of the race.

The Mercedes driver says he had🌼 to produce ‘qualifying laps to keep ahead’ of Vettel but the tyre degradation was miscalculated by the team which saw him drop from first to fourth place by the chequered flag.

“Afterwards, it’s e🎀asy to say we should have pitted, to at least keep the position. We took a risk to be first but ended up fourth. Five laps𝓡 too much,” Bottas said. “It was definitely a possibility to go to the end.

“In practice I didn’t do any long runs with the mediums but from our cꦰalculations, it should have been okay. But it wasn’t.

“I was trying everything I could to stay ahead. I had to push qualifyꦍing laps to keep ahead. The tyres degrade quicker, I tried my best but it was not enough.”

It marks the end of a frustrating triple-header for Bottas who saw his French Grand Prix wrecked by a first-lap clash with Vettel to finish seventh which ܫwas followed by a mechanical retirement last week at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Bottas has moved up to fifth pla꧅ce in the Formula 1 world drivers’ championship at the expense of Red Bull’s Max✃ Verstappen.