Valtteri Bottas believes his three-place grid for spinning in the Red Bull Ring pitlane “quite harsh” following McLaren’s objection, claiming that “everyone is always trying to screw you over in this sport.”

The Finn originally made second place in qualifying but he forced to demote to fifth on the grid for main race as a result of his three-place grid penalty.

Asked about the stewards’ strange decision, “My personal view, it’s quite harsh,” Bottas said.

“I never imagined after that that there would be a penalty. But of course, other teams when there’s equal opportunity, they complain that it’s dangerous so we would get penalised.

“That’s how it goes. Everyone is always trying to screw you over in this sport. For sure, it can be a dangerous situation if there are many people in the pitlane.”

Following the pit-lane spin incident McLaren complaining to FIA Race Director Michael Masi over radio that the spin had been “absolutely ridiculous – he could have taken our guys out”.

“When Bottas pulled away from his designated pit stop position,” ran the stewards’ verdict, “he lost control of the car when he turned into the fast lane. He oversteered, spun and came to a stop across the fast lane near the McLaren pits.”

Bottas confessed that the spin “definitely caught me out” and that he “never imagined it would happen in the pitlane”, explaining that it was harder to keep control when in second gear.

“We decided to try something different, launch with the second gear,” Bottas said.

“Sometimes with a higher gear you have lower revs, and maybe you can manage to wheelspin but the initial part is not so aggressive. But then once I got the wheelspin, it really caught me out.

“I don’t know, perhaps the line on the pitlane was still slightly damp from the drizzle. I just couldn’t hold it. Obviously quite a different behaviour for second gear than first gear. So that happened.”

“I honestly think it was a good qualifying. I think I’ve been a little bit lost with the set-up during the weekend so far.”

Here's another look at FP2's big talking point, Valtteri Bottas' spin in the the pit lane#StyrianGP 🇦🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Hc2jZ4DIWx

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 25, 2021

“But being able to go in the right direction with the set-up, we’ve been working closely with Lewis as well to try to find the optimal set-up and definitely got some guidance from his side of the garage this weekend because I was definitely lacking a bit of pace on Friday and was a bit confused about which way to go and yeah, we were working as a team and found the right direction.”

“I think thanks to that I found the confidence in the car and felt good. That last lap, there were definitely not two-tenths on the table so I think Max and Red Bull were faster today. It was a good lap and I’m pleased for that. Of course, it’s a shame I have the penalty but obviously the job today was to try and maximise the situation.” The Finn added