Kimi Antonelli was relieved to have made it through a risk-free, "damage-safe mode" race weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he recovered to finish fifth from 16th on the grid.
Teammate George Russell's victory trimmed Antonelli's championship lead to 66 points with 208 still to play for across the scheduled remaining eight rounds, but the damage could have been far greater.
Antonelli had started down the order after clipping the wall in qualifying and narrowly avoided being caught up in a collision at the Safety Car restart at mid-distance.
The Italian said it was a race he just had to get through in one piece.
Antonelli also experienced a disrupted Thursday practice in Baku after a hydraulic leak on his power unit caused him to lose track time at the end of FP1 and the start of FP2.
"Today is one of those days you just have to be happy with P5," Antonelli told Sky Sports. "It was not an easy race at all. But overall was one of those weekends where I was a step behind, missing FP2. All in all I'm happy with P5. Just make sure next weekend I'll be back at my level."
It was the first time in six races, stretching back to the British Grand Prix in June, that Antonelli finished behind Russell. It was Russell's third victory of the season, a big momentum and confidence boost in the first of nine races across the next 11 weekends.
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Asked if he was ready for the title talk to intensify, Antonelli said: "Yeah, it's exciting. George has done an incredible weekend. He's driven incredibly this weekend, he had a lot of confidence.
"This weekend was my worst of the year by far in terms of performance. I wasn't there. I wasn't really present especially with what happened so early on and just didn't take the same risks especially after qualifying. Today was more 'damage-safe mode' instead of full attack."
Antonelli will look back to get back on track at Malaysia's returning Sepang circuit on Oct.4, which hosts the re-scheduled Bahrain Grand Prix in an unusual deal which came about due to the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East.