Valtteri Bottas took a time penalty for causing a collision with Sergey Sirotkin on the opening lap of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Bottas ran into the back of Williams driver Sirotkin’s car, causing damage to his front wing.
Mercedes pitted Bottas for a new front wing under the Safety Car. After that the Finn clambered back up to fourth place at the chequered flag. He aided the team in extending its constructors’ championship lead over Ferrari.
The stewards confirmed after the race they would be investigating Bottas’ collision with Sirotkin. And they handed down a five-second time penalty to the Finnish driver as a result of the incident.
“The driver of car 77 [Bottas] admitted the collision was his fault, that he had completely misjudged the situation and that the braking of car 35 [Sirotkin] caught him by surprise and that he should have left more margin,” the stewards’ report reads.
Despite the time penalty, Valtteri retains fourth place. He finished 7.382 seconds clear of Sergio Perez at the chequered flag. And the revised margin is reducing to 2.382 seconds.
As well as the time penalty, Bottas had two penalty points added to his FIA super license, taking him up to four for the 12-month period.
