Valtteri Bottas has declared his unhappiness with the penalty handed out to him for overtaking Felipe Nasr during a red flag period in second practice on Friday at Interlagos.
The Williams Martini Racing driver was demoted three places on the grid for passing the Sauber F1 Team driver while the red flags were out due to Fernando Alonso stopping his McLaren-Honda out on track.
The Finn will therefore start seventh having qualified fourth, but Bottas was not happy with the decision to penalise him for what he believed to be a safe manoeuvre.
“I wasn’t happy with the penalty at all,” said Bottas, who also earned two penalty points on his Superlicence for the incident. “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 realised the red flag. They were very strict that I made an overtake under the red and it was done.”
