Bottas praises Hamilton’s sporting gesture

Valtteri Bottas has praised teammate Lewis Hamilton for handing back third place to him on the last lap after earlier letting him through to attack the Ferraris.

Bottas let Hamilton through on team orders when they were both catching the Ferraris ahead, on the promise that he would let Bottas back through if he could not get past. The ferraris were surprisingly slower than expected because of Vettel’s broken steering, which was hampering both of the Ferraris.

Hamilton immediately pulled away from the Finn, but he couldn't get past Raikkonen, who had just enough pace to keep Hamilton at bay, on a track where overtaking is exceedingly difficult.

It was then a question of whether Hamilton would keep his promise to let Bottas back through, as there were many factors to consider when making the move to switch back. There was a swiftly closing Verstappen chasing Bottas, making the move dangerous to pull off successfully. as well as this was the now large gap back to Bottas, which was at 7 seconds on the final lap, meaning Hamilton had to drop back through lapped traffic to pull off the move, making it even more difficult.

There was also the team's championship ambitions, with Hamilton as lead driver, he would perhaps be forgiven for not giving the place back to Bottas, in such a tight title battle. But in the end Hamilton was extremely sporting and gave back the position, and the three extra points that came with it.

Bottas had high praise for his teammate after this decision saying: "I was promised that Lewis would let me back if it didn't work out. I was struggling with the back markers so the gap to Lewis became bigger than I wanted.But Lewis and the team kept their promise and we swapped positions back in the last lap. I don't think every team-mate would do that in a championship fight, so I think that was really nice of him and it shows that he is a real team player.”

Sam Gale