Valtteri Bottas has criticised Mercedes' decision to not pit him for a second time during the French GP as he suffered major tyre wear issues in the closing stages of the race on his way to fourth place. Bottas was overtaken by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez which dropped him out of the podium positions and believes that Mercedes got the strategy wrong in Paul Ricard. "I think Red Bull got more points than us today I think that they were a bit smarter with their strategy," Bottas told Ziggo Sport. "We should have done a two-stop strategy so we need to look into it." Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed that Bottas pitted early due to big vibrations and was close to a having a tyre failure . Bottas feels the timing of his first pit stop affected the rest of his race. "The early stop compromised it all and by stopping that early we should have done a two-stop," Bottas told RacingNews365.com and other select members of the press. "The last 10 to 15 laps I had nothing left. That's why it was so tricky. For us the front tyre wear was very high and I don't know why. Bottas explained his frustrated team radio calls when he angrily questioned why Mercedes did opted to not pit him to copy Verstappen's winning strategy. "I was making it very clear what I was thinking," said Bottas. "I suggested a two-stop earlier in the race and the team decided to go for one-stop."
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