Bottas may step aside for Hamilton
Pole-sitter faces order to move over for team-mate Mercedes hint they may intervene in race for title
Mercedes have hinted that they will ask Valtteri Bottas to move out of Lewis Hamilton’s way to help their star driver’s challenge for a fifth world championship.
A rare mistake from Hamilton in qualifying allowed Bottas to put his car on pole position for today’s Russian Grand Prix as the dominant Mercedes duo locked out the front row.
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, who heads into the race at the Sochi Autodrom 40 points behind Hamilton with six rounds left, lines up third after finishing more than half a second adrift.
Mercedes must be applauded for their refusal to adopt team orders in recent seasons, allowing Hamilton, and his former team-mate Nico Rosberg, to battle for victory.
But with Vettel – albeit spluttering towards the end of the season – still within striking range and Mercedes just 37 points ahead of their Italian rivals in the fight for the constructors’ title, Toto Wolff, team principal for the Silver Arrows, indicated that he would not allow his drivers to go wheel-towheel in today’s grand prix.
“We are not in a part of the season where I enjoy two Mercedes cars racing each other at the front,” he said last night. “As much as I hate to say it as a fan, you need to calculate a little bit more at this stage of the season.”
Wolff revealed that he would sit down with both Hamilton and Bottas, and the team’s senior engineers, this morning to discuss their strategy.
For Hamilton, he will want to win today’s race on merit and it is implausible that he will demand Bottas steps aside. Bottas, meanwhile, is searching for his opening win in a season where he has been a distant second to his team-mate.
“None of us like orders because we have seen that from other teams in the past,” Wolff added. “Lewis wouldn’t want that because he wants to go for the win on his own, and Valtteri would not want it because he needs that victory. It is going to be difficult to tell Valterri that he is not allowed to race after putting it on pole.”
Bottas, who finished 0.145sec clear of Hamilton but is 110 points adrift in the championship, said: “My approach to the race is to win. You can’t have any other goal starting from pole. Obviously Lewis is leading the championship with a bit of a gap to Sebastian, and a very big gap to me, so you always need to keep those things in mind.”
Hamilton added: “All of our goals are to win this race. Valtteri just did the better job.”
Up until his mistake, Hamilton had been in a class of one and appeared set to claim the 80th pole of his career after topping the time-sheets in the first two phases of qualifying.
But, three tenths up on Bottas in the opening sector of his final hot run, he ran wide at the right-handed turn seven and was forced to abort his lap.
It marked the first significant error of Hamilton’s title defence, yet it did not prove as costly as it might have done with Ferrari – despite running an upgraded package in Russia – well off the pace. Vettel desperately needs to beat Hamilton today to stop the Briton, a winner of four of the last five rounds, from running away with the title.
But to stand any chance of victory, the 31-year-old German will have to navigate his way past not one, but two Mercedes cars at a track where overtaking is notoriously troublesome.
His best chance will come off the start line, and the 220mph charge down to the second bend. Last year, Bottas started behind both Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen before winning the drag race and clinching the victory. “I have spoken to Valtteri and reminded him of what happened here last year,” Vettel said. “Maybe we can turn it around tomorrow. That would be nice.”
Raikkonen joins Vettel on the second row, with the Haas car of Kevin Magnussen and Force India’s Esteban Ocon fifth and sixth respectively.
The second phase of qualifying, which lasts 15 minutes, was rendered meaningless yesterday with five drivers, the number eliminated from Q2, not bothering to post a time.
The Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo and the Toro Rosso driver Pierre Gasly already knew they would be sent to the back of the grid due to a series of engine penalties.
Renault took the tactical decision not to run either Carlos Sainz or Nico Hulkenberg to ensure they would start outside the top 10, in 11th and 12th, and enjoy a free tyre choice for the race.
Brendon Hartley, who finished 16th, and Fernando Alonso, one place lower, will also serve grid sanctions for exceeding the number of permitted engine parts, meaning a quarter of the 20-strong field have been penalised.
Verstappen, who turns 21 today, was later given two points on his licence after failing to slow significantly for yellow flags. He will start from last.