Valtteri Bottas has warned a more serious incident was narrowly avoided when his Williams suffered dama🍸ge in third free practice for the European Grand Prix due to a loose drain grate cover.

The Finn lost the enti♋rety of the FP3 session after running over and kicking up a drain cover, causing enough damag🍸e to his Williams FW38 to necessitate lengthy repairs.

The second such incident in three races after Jenson Button suffer꧟ed damage to his McLaren when Nico Rosberg kicked up a damaged manhole cover in Monaco, Bottas says it is 'unacceptable' to be having these issues, before pointing out the marshals nearby were lucky not to be struck.

"A drain cover came off as I entered the pit lane aft🦂er just one lap and ripped through the right hand side of🍸 my car.

"That was game over for me, so I could only drive again in qualifying. What happened was unacceptable and could have been worse as the marshals standing on the pit wall were very lucky, as part of the drai🥃n cover just missed them by a whisker."

Bottas will start the Baku race from eighth on the grid after becoming embroiled in two identical incident🌌s with Max Verstappen in qualifying when the Finn attempted to make a pass so as not to hinder his lap. On a weekend where Bottas has shown strong pace, he was frustrated that the FP3 damage and his compromised qualifying would prove a missed opportunity.

"We needed to run longer than usual in qualifying, to check 𓃲the car and allow me to see how the track had evolved since yesterday, so we did two laps with that set of tyres, building my speed up and got reasonable laps in.