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Bottas, whose arrival in Azerbaijan for this
weekend's sixth round of the season was delayed by travel
disruption, told reporters on Thursday that what happened was
not a complete surprise.
The stuck wheel was eventually removed at the factory in England
some 43 hours after the race.
"It was one of my concerns already a few weeks ago, that I
raised with the team. It didn't come from somewhere out of the
blue," Bottas said by video link from Finland before his flight
to Baku.
"We knew that we are not perfect in pit stops as we've seen, and
also other areas like tyre warm up in qualifying. I knew coming
to Monaco that it is going to be an issue and it was one of the
things that I'd highlighted much before the weekend."
Bottas had been second in the race, behind Red Bull's eventual
winner and now overall leader Max Verstappen, when the failed
pitstop happened.
Team boss Toto Wolff later said the Finn had stopped slightly
beyond the pit lane markers, making it harder for the mechanic
to get the correct angle to change the wheel.
Bottas said he was surprised by the comments.
"I saw the video and for me it was pretty spot on where I
stopped. Yes, I was quite surprised," he said. "I think I was
like 2cm or 3cm off the central line. And if you get that
accuracy normally, it's pretty good."
The driver, who is out of contract at the end of the season,
said it had taken him a couple of days to get over the
disappointment but he was now keen to get going again.
He won in Baku in 2019, the most recent race there as a result
of COVID-19.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Mike Harrison)
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