On a humid monitor Bottas made a nasty begin with a lot of wheelspin on his intermediates and misplaced management underneath braking for the primary nook.
He slammed into McLaren driver Lando Norris, who subsequently hit Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen, whereas Bottas additionally made contact with Sergio Perez.
Of the 4, solely Verstappen was in a position to take the restart after the purple flag, while Bottas has been handed a five-place grid penalty for the Belgian GP.
He accepted accountability for the accident and defined that when he outbraked himself he was powerless to keep away from slamming into the again of Norris.
“Clearly my mistake,” mentioned Bottas. “I used to be the one coming from behind, and it’s as much as me to brake early sufficient.
“However I misjudged the braking level. It reveals it’s not really easy in these situations to brake, however I ought to have braked earlier.
“Once I began braking I used to be closing in, after which I locked the wheels and I hit Lando and that brought on the entire mess.
“It was arduous to guage the place to brake. And after I did, I fairly shortly seen it was too late after which after that, there’s nothing you are able to do.
“Simply calculating the braking level, making an attempt to determine how a lot grip you may have, it isn’t simple.”
Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12, collides with Sergio Perez, Purple Bull Racing RB16B, at first
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Bottas, who apologised to Norris and Perez, conceded that he could have been distracted by Norris passing him on the within off the road.
“Probably somewhat bit. You lose somewhat bit the sense of the place you really in comparison with Flip 1,” he mentioned.
“However that’s racing, and I ought to have braked earlier.
“It’s arduous with the spray and never precisely figuring out how a lot grip there may be, particularly if you find yourself proper behind somebody you lose fairly a little bit of grip.”
Bottas dropped behind Norris within the first place due to a poor getaway, saying he dropped the clutch on the proper time for the situations however nonetheless needed to take care of wheelspin.
“We’ve got sure form of targets the place to drop the clutch for inters, for dries, for wets,” he defined.
“For inters I hit the goal, however I nonetheless bought the wheelspin. Within the formation lap I did not have the wheelspin.
“And I may see that I misplaced some temperature of the tyres within the formation lap. That may very well be the trigger, however yeah, we’ll take a look.”
Bottas mentioned he accepts the grid penalty for Spa within the data that it received’t be as massive a handicap as at another venues.
“I’ll take it, clearly it’s not very best, however at the least within the subsequent race it’s attainable to overhaul so it’s not just like the weekend is over,” he added.
“It’s simply going to make it tougher but when that’s the choice, that’s what it’s.”