VALTERRI BOTTAS has opened up about the five seasons he spent as Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate at Mercedes. Bottas, 33, joined Mercedes for the 2017 season to replace Nico Rosberg, who retired after beating Hamilton a year earlier. Bottas said: “For such a competitive nature, it was hard to accept. “It was only in the last year that I could accept that Lewis Hamilton was a better driver. Mercedes chief Toto Wolff previously said he thought it was correct to let Bottas go at the end of the 2021 season. He was in a slower car last season with the Italian constructors and finished 10th in last term’s standings.

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