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Valtteri Bottas said his tire choice during his first pit stop was a "mistake" because he had locked him into a two-stop strategy.
Bottas, who led the first laps of the race, was the first of two Mercedes drivers to take the lead. He put on a second pair of intermediate rubber tires, which allowed him to make a second pit stop later in the race.
At that time, he was trying to stay close enough to Lewis Hamilton to make sure his teammate was coming out of the pits behind him.
"After my first stop, I had the impression that everything was under control," Bottas said. "I was following closely the gap, the hole I had in front of me for Lewis, and I was just waiting for him to stop and, of course, the safety car made him advance.
"I was stuck in two stages at this point, because we stopped for the medium because of average tires, so it's a mistake on our part. We thought that two stops would be by far the fastest, but in fact a stop was also possible. Not quite ideal, but one of these days. "
Bottas, who is 39 points behind his team-mate at the top of the overall standings, has found some comfort for the Mercedes double after his tough weekend in Austria.
"At least we had the impression that the pace was good today and yesterday, so there are positives," he said. "In addition, we are very happy for our team to get the most points and it is impressive to see the difference in the teams behind."
He also won the fierce fight against Hamilton in the early laps of the race. "We had good races early and I really enjoyed it," he said.
"That's the reason we're here, to run hard and fair. I'm sure Toto [Wolff, team principal] We may not have benefited as much as we do, but it does not matter. "
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