Valtteri Bottas took pole position from Sebastian Vettel by under four hundredths of a second, only to lose the position at the first corner of the Brazilian Grand Prix and ultimately finish runner-up to the German in a significant swing in the battle for the championship runner-up spot.

Bottas conceded the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix decided the result having been unable to come back from the first turn overtake which took a hammer blow to his hopes of second place in the F1 drivers’ championship with the gap extended to 22 points with one race remaining.

“It was in the start that we lost the race, which is unfortunate. The issue for me was the initial wheel spin, as soon as I started to released the clutch I broke the traction and got wheel spin, so that’s why I had a poor getaway.

“I got pretty close after he came out of his pit stop but just not enough to try to overtake. I’m definitively disappointed after the good day we had yesterday and it’s also not so good for me on the battle we have for second place in the championship.

“It looks quite ugly now and it will take a miracle in Abu Dhabi.”

Reflecting on the missed opportunity of victory, which would have bene his first since the Austrian Grand Prix, the Finnish driver remained downbeat having lost out at turn one.

“I don’t want to be sandwiched!” Bottas said. “We started from the pole so the only goal was to win the race today so it’s very disappointing that we lost it at the start and after that it was very, very close with them.”