Valtteri Bottas says the clutch he used at the Spanish Grand Prix, where a poor start cost him the lead of the race, won’t be fitted to his car again.

having qualified on pole position Bottas was passed at the start of the race by team mate Lewis Hamilton , who went on to win. Bottas blamed a clutch “oscillation” for his slow getaway.

A video released by Mercedes last week suggested it was due to a lack of grip at his starting position rather than a problems with his car. But speaking in today’s FIA press conference Bottas the team had investigated the problem and decided not to continue using the clutch from the race.

“We went through all the details and things to improve from my side and the team’s side, as usual. We can see the cause of it. For sure that clutch, physically, is out from the pool.

“But there’s also things on the control side that in that unfortunate moment which just being on the grip limit allowed some hesitation and variation on the clutch torque. We’ve done changes to prevent that. Hopefully it won’t happen again, and we’ll move on.”

Bottas has taken pole position for the last three rounds of the championship.

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2019 F1 season