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Bottas praises Hamilton’s sporting gesture

Published on 31 Jul 2017 09:50
6
By: Sam Gale

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

F1 News Max Verstappen Valtteri Bottas Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen

Replies (6)

f1fan0101

Posts: 1,804
How costly could that be though
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- Jul 31 2017 - 13:42
mclarenfan1968

Posts: 1,027
More like Bottas behind closed doors has made it clear if you f**k with him his radio might have problems in the future listening to team orders. He is no push over so whiner boy had no choice but to play ball.

Outside to the press everyone plays the PR game of teamwork and all that warm fuzzy stuff. However only the naive will buy into any of this BS.
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- Jul 31 2017 - 13:49
talktohenry

Posts: 362
Big mistake, potentially by Mercedes, they going to loose the Championship, by this stupid ''treat drivers equal policy'' Lewis is number 1, based on speed and results on the long term, and if you don't get that why pay him the super big bucks....
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- Jul 31 2017 - 16:43
Victory2011

Posts: 17
High praise to both Valtteri and Lewis. Outstanding sportsmanship. Call me gullible, but Surtees would be proud of you. Well done Lewis. Let's hope the Championship is not decided by those 3 points, but if it is, you can be proud of being a man of your word. There are few who are that honourable in this day and age.
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- Jul 31 2017 - 17:30
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
It was a good gesture. Surprised to see Hamilton pull that kind of thing, but certainly glad he did.
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- Jul 31 2017 - 18:18
Smiler121

Posts: 53
However calculated this may or may not have been from Lewis he's come out looking a true gent, though I do wonder if Merc should have made the difficult call for their best shot at drivers title - time will tell! :-)
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- Jul 31 2017 - 23:49