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Bottas insists his role is not to support Hamilton

16:30, 26 Jul 2018

byMatt

Valtteri Bottas is adamant his role at Mercedes is not to support team-mate, Lewis Hamilton. Going against what the Finn said, last weekend he was given a team order to back off and gift Hamilton the race win.

After the safety car period in Germany, Bottas went on to attack race leader Hamilton. However, he was told to give in by Mercedes strategy chief James Vowles.

Following plenty of debate, Bottas was asked direct questions earlier this afternoon.

"I do believe we are still allowed to race freely. Obviously, it always goes case by case, but there is no plan at the moment for me to be in a support role.

"We are still on equal terms, and that is the plan for now, and hopefully it will continue to the end of the year."

Bottas went on to claim he understood why the team made the decision. He also has faith in the Mercedes garage that they would have backed him had it been the other way around.

"We lost so many points with different causes - we were side-by-side and they wanted to get those points. I am confident they would have done the same if I was in the lead."