Valtteri Bottas has no concerns about the recent spate of clashes between Ferrari and Mercedes drivers on th🐟e opening lap of Formula 1 races, believing they are part and parcel of two teams fighting cl🍒osely together on-track.

Bottas was hit by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel at the French Grand Prᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚix three weeks ago, while teammate Lewis Hamilton collided with Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap at Silverstone last weekend, sparking concern about the regularity of the incidents.

Ha💟milton spoke about Ferrari🐽's "interesting tactics" after the race at Silverstone, appearing to hint they could have been deliberate, but later retracted his comments and accepted an ap✃ology from Raikkonen over the collision.

Asked by wuqian0821.com after the race if he was concerned by the incidents with Ferrari drivers, Bottas said: "No. Fro𓂃m these incidents, I can't say there are any concerns.

"I think we are always 🅰starting more or less in a similar position, so we are always going to be battling. Sometimes you get hi💯t, and normally you tend to do so with cars that are not in the same team as you.

"We are fight🌳ing hard and this can happen. It's only a couple of incidents. Of course, it's been always🐬 pretty bad for us."

Bottas saw his hopes of challenging for victory♏ in France end after the clash with Vettel, le﷽aving the Finn to finish down in seventh. Vettel received a five-second time penalty for the collision.

Raikkonen's clash with Hamilton at Silverstone resulted in a 10-second time penalty for the Ferrari driving, leading to some q🧸ueries about the level of consistency in the stewards' decisions given the two 🌠incidents were similar.

However, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff did not share these concerns, believing the stewards were doing al💞l they could with the limited number of penalties at their disposal.

"I think there’s actually consistency on the penalties." Wolff said. "They are what they are and there’s a certain arsenal of penalties the stewards have available, a five sec🅺ond penalty and a 10-seconds penalty or a drive-through - that’s what they have in the regulations, and then they look ♛at the precedents.

"What we need to discuss among all of us is that if certain incidents occur and they have a massive outcome in what’s happening, maybe around a ra🅷ce win and what the consequences will be that’s a🐈 different story.

"But on the penalty itsel🥃f, they are like the rulebook says, so it is what it is.🧸"