Bottas: Malaysian Grand Prix first lap 'worst I’ve ever had'

The Finn had some wheelspin off the start and a little contact at Turn 1 before squabbling for position for the rest of the lap.

However, he fought his way back through the field and pulled off an impressive pass on team-mate Felipe Massa in the closing stages to claim fifth position, behind the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers.

"It was a pretty nice race but my first lap was maybe the worst first lap I have ever had," said Bottas.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had a little contact in Turn 1 as well.

"In Turns 1, 2 and 4 I was always sandwiched between other cars so I am not so happy with what I did personally in the first lap. After that, the race was OK, we maximised the result."

Williams struggled with tyre management in the hot conditions and while Bottas was hopeful things would be better next time out in China, where it will be cooler, he accepted work still had to be done.

"I think the race sims in Barcelona testing were quite a bit better than what we felt here so [cooler conditions] could help - but there will be hot races anyway.

"We need to work on that because we are quite far behind with tyre drop off, we need to learn from the race."