Bottas doesn't seem to have that killer instinct. I think if it was vettel, Hamilton, alonso or verstapen doing the chasing in that situation they would have slung their car up the inside and forced the other car into making a decision. Bottas just didn't seem able to apply the pressure.
i dunno, i think it's easy to be a bit unfair on Bottas and just assume the others would have done better....i'm not sure he ever got close enough that slinging it down the inside was ever a proper option for anyone.
Could he have pushed harder, earlier, to close the gap to vettel sooner? maybe, but only merc know if he was driving to his limits, or the targets they set...We've seen plenty of instances with Hammo getting behind a car, then being unable to make a pass because it's so hard to follow in the dirty air....and as much as vettel was on worn tyres, so was Bottas - even though the medium tyre lasts the longest, there's a reason why teams very rarely want to use it, because it doesn't offer great performance.
If he'd got behind vettel a few laps earlier, and then never made a proper attempt, it would be a fairer criticism...as it is he only got into DRS on the main straight once, and only barely, heading into the final lap.
Both Bottas and Hamilton were routinely locking up under braking towards the end of the race which shows that they were presumably close to the limit on the medium tyres.
That's not to say that Bottas shouldn't have tried a bit harder when he had the opportunity. If he had outbraked himself into turn 1 on the final lap then he would probably have still recovered to finish second, assuming of course that he didn't take out Vettel in the process.
Martin Brundle said on sky commentary that bottas should have slung the car inside the corner and pushed Vettel wide. That man knows more about f1 than most.
Also bottas isn't in the very very top tier. those guys pull off the moves that others think impossible. Hamo, Riccardo, Verstrappen, Alonso are in that category.
Hopefully we will see Riccardo and Verstrappen in a Ferrari and Mercedes next season (replacing raikkonen and bottas).
First time since 2006 we have a Ferrari front row. Ferrari definitely ahead of Mercedes for overall car package. Half a second is massive gap. Short of a change in weather or track temperatures it looks like another Vettel win is on the cards.