F1: Bottas disagrees with grid penalty

Williams Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas has expressed frustration at the grid penalty he received for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Stewards handed Bottas a three-place drop for the penultimate F1 race of the 2015 season, after he was deemed to have passed Sauber's Felipe Nasr after the red flag had been shown during Friday's second practice session.

The Finn qualified fourth at Interlagos, splitting the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, but will now drop to the fourth row and start seventh.

"I wasn't happy with the penalty at all," Bottas said. "I was just trying to be safe, not to do any massive lock-up of the brakes or anything silly.

"When I saw the light panel it was a bit too late, I was already committed to the overtake and he was pulled to the right. I think it was completely safe. I slowed down very quickly after I realized the red flag.

"They were very strict that I made an overtake under the red and it was done."

Bottas feels his Williams can fight the Ferraris in race conditions, "especially with the prime" tires, and does not feel a podium is out of the equation even with the penalty.

"I think we can still have a good race," he said. "P7 is the clean side and you're on the inside for Turn 2, so we'll see. We need to target being on the podium.

"Hopefully we'll have a good start and if we can make a good strategy then I'm really hopeful we're going to have a pretty good race because the pace with the primes [mediums] seems to be quite strong. If it's cooler tomorrow I think it's going to help us more."

Originally on Autosport.com