Bottas started 16th in Sochi after Mercedes was forced to change his power unit꧂ for the second race running.

The team was confident that Bottas would have been able to fight his way through the pack, similar to his recovery drive at the Italian Grand Prix when he went from the b🥂ack to third.

But the Finn struggled to mꦇake the same kind of progress and was languishing outside of the top 10 before late heavy rain “saved” his race as he switched onto intermediate tyres early and🦂 vaulted up to fifth.

“It was lot more difficult for me than I thought 🅘it w✃ould be, just to come through the field,” Bottas said.

“I thought it was going to be like🍰 in Monza, but it was a lot more diffic👍ult. Mainly what I struggled with was big understeer, and this was when I got close and I couldn't get to overtaking distance.”

Despite starting four places behind Bottas in 20th, Red Bull’s Max 🃏Verstappen made short work of progressing through the pack and had managed to get past Bottas with relative ease just six laps into the race.

Bottas’ failure to make life more difficult for Verstappen - who is teammate Lewis Hamilton’s main championship rival - drew criticism from 1996 world champion Damon Hꦕill.

Asked if he could have done more to halt Verstappen’s charge, Botta♑s replied: “He was just෴ able to really come through the field.

“I need to have a look if there was more I could have d🔯one but I think he passed me pretty easily. I think he then overtook the cars ahead of me, and I had no chance.”

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said that Botta💦s’ struggles with understeer were exacerbated by the cooler temperatures on Sunday.

“Principally that the cooler conditions the front tyres were havin꧋g a tough time,” Shovlin explained.

“We were u🌊ndersteering a bit. Whereas on Friday, the rears were really the axle tꩲhat was suffering the most, here it was the front.

“And when you can't follow in those last four♎ corners, then you can't get close enough to overtake, but it was really down to car balance.

“I think the cooler conditions are actually making it more difficult, rather than ♉easier.”

Another factor that hampered Bottas was that he repeatedly found himself getting caug𝔍ht up in a train of cars all running within DRS range of each other.

Despite Bottas often boasting superio🌃r pace over his rivals directly ahead, he was unable to overtake because they were also benefitting from the additional speed boost, effectively negating any advantage the Mercedes driver m꧙ay have had.

“This race was harder and the reason it was harder is because what we were seei🦹ng with DRS trains,” Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott said.

"As a consequence of that, even though Valtteri has got m🌼ore pace the car in front als🌄o has that same advantage of DRS and it makes it much more difficult to overtake.

“We saw 🌸that up and down the grid with people stuck in those positions, unable to get past because of thos⛎e trains.

"On top of that Valtteri, was also struggling w♔ith an amount of understeer in the car.🧔 And because of that he was struggling in sector 3 primarily.

“What that leads to iඣs that leads to a position where it is very difficult to get close to the car in front and as a consequence of that, when you get onto the straight you don’t get the full benefit of the tow because you are just too far behind.

“By the time you are really sort of💮 catching 🔯up you are already too close to the end of the straight to make that pass.”