Valtteri Bottas says he was disappointed to have his Bahrain Grand Prix hampered by a drive-through penalty for colliding 🌄with Lewis Hamilton at tꦕhe first corner.

The Finn made a superb start from sixth to jump to third as the field thundered into turn one, but after going for what he felt was a viable gap, H🍷amilton turned in and the pair made contact.

Though both survived the impact to continue on, Bo🃏ttas fared better, resuming in third as Hamilton dropped to a brief low of ninth position.

With stewards investigating the incident, they would determine the Williams driver to be at fault, hitting him with a drive-through penalty just as he had taken the first of his two stops for the race. Indeed, though Bottas admits it was an u🍸nfortunate incident, he was frustrated to be penalised for it.

"I committed to brake late into Turn One, I saw a gap on the inside 50 metres before the corner and I thought "OK, that's going to be my spo﷽t" but I think Lewis didn't expect me to come on the inside, so we touched. It's a shame because it cost us a lot today

"Of course I wasn't happy when I was told about the penalty... I don't know what to say, really, I need to have a be𝔉tter look at what happened, but I think this kind of things can happen, going into such a tight Turn One likꦆe this one, so it was a shame."

The Finn would eventually recover to ninth position to pick up two ༺points.