Bottas did "absolutely nothing wrong" in Raikkonen incident

Bottas's left front wheel tagged Kimi Raikkonen's right rear as they fought for position at Turn 5 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

And although Raikkonen was forced out on the spot, with his rear suspension breaking, Bottas was not only able to continue, but pushed on to claim third spot.

Williams performance chief Smedley was adamant that Bottas was not to blame for the Raikkonen clash, as he was already over the kerb when his Ferrari rival turned in.

"Valtteri had done absolutely nothing wrong," he said. "He could not have got his car any more on the inside kerb going into Turn 5. 

"We said before that was a really difficult corner to defend. The most intuitive thing to do is defend the inside line, which is what Kimi did.

"But we said as long as you are there, you have the inside line for following three corners.

"Kimi went for it. Valtteri gave him enough room around the outside of that left hander and from in-car, there was absolutely nowhere else for him to go.

"He was already two wheels off the track. Kimi knew he was there, as he had defended the corner already."

With Raikkonen retiring from the collision, Smedley added Bottas was "lucky" to avoid terminal damage himself.

"There was no damage whatsoever," said the Brit. "We were lucky, as that could've resulted in us going out the race."