Valtteri Bottas says the chances of a top five finish in Miami faded after he became distracted by the Mercedes drivers battling.

The Finnish driver finished a solid P7 for Alfa Romeo salvaging valuable points for the Swiss outfit after Zhou Guanyu’s early retirement.

Bottas ran wide at Turn 17 conceding fifth place as both Mercedes’ drivers took advantage of his minor mistake.

The 32-year-old explained the incident after the race to MotorLAT and other media outlets: “As [George] was overtaking Lewis I was kind of following them in the mirrors as they were getting pretty close, [whether] I needed to close the door or something.

“I braked a fraction too late, mixed the apex in the corner a tiny bit, then I got to the dirty tarmac and felt awkward as I was going so slowly, understeering, hit the wall, luckily didn’t break anything or get a puncture.”

Despite the late error Bottas gave a positive assessment of his race saying Alfa Romeo are firmly in the midfield battle.

“We bring home some good points which will be super important for the championship, and we showed we can fight on a par with everyone in the midfield,” he said.

“It’s all very close and the way we keep developing will be important to stay ahead in this fight.”

The Alfa Romeo C42 has had pace similar to that of the Mercedes W13, a trait that Bottas is very happy with.

”It's good," the Finn commented.

"It was good recovery yesterday, and today the race pace was very close to Mercedes, I think, so it is good to see we can really fight with them. 

"It's a shame we didn't get P5, but still, P7 is [okay].”

The Spanish Grand Prix is next for Bottas and the rest of the F1 circus at Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya. 

It's a track he has performed well at in recent times scoring a podium in the last four Spanish Grands Prix.