Bottas explains bad F1 Hungarian GP start, saying he was distracted by dashboard light

Bottas initially edged forward slightly from his second-placed grid slot at the start before bogging down, leading rival Sebastian Vettel to tell his Ferrari team that the Finn had jumped the lights.

However, Bottas did not receive a penalty as he did not trigger the FIA detection system.

After dropping to an initial sixth place, he recovered to pressurise Red Bull driver Max Verstappen for second place.

Bottas pitted for a fresh set of tyres with 20 laps to go in an attempt to find him extra pace to pass Verstappen.

However, Bottas just failed to oust the Dutchman, crossing the line 0.75 seconds behind him as lapped traffic slowed Bottas's charge.

"It was a pretty bad race for me to be honest," admitted Bottas, who finished nearly 10 seconds behind his victorious team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

"Starting second obviously, you aim to win the race - I lost it at the start.

"I reacted to a light on my dash that went off, I don't know what it was, but something changed on my dash, so I reacted to that instead of the start lights, so I got anti-stall, so then I had to do the start again.

"I lost it there, obviously I lost many places, and it made the race difficult for me.

"Fighting to the end, it was pretty close with Max, but still good points."

Bottas said the extra stop to try and pass Verstappen late in the race was worth trying.

"I think it was worth the gamble yes, I think it really gave me that difference in the tyre life," he said. "It didn't quite pay off today.

"I look forward to Silverstone, but plenty again to learn from this weekend."

As team-mate Hamilton won the race and took the additional point for fastest lap, Bottas has now lost the championship lead.

He trails Hamilton by five points heading into the Silverstone double-header that starts on 2 August.