Hamilton-Bottas team orders on Mercedes' mind

Toto Wolff says a decision is yet to be made whether Mercedes will implement team orders on Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton at the Russian Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows outclassed Ferrari in Sochi on Saturday, as Hamilton looks to extend his championship lead over Sebastian Vettel, but Bottas stunned his team-mate to take pole position.

With growing questions over the team's decision to retain him over promoting Esteban Ocon, Bottas delivered a timely remainder of his talents to secure just a second pole position of the season in Sochi, the venue of his maiden grand prix win last year.

Hamilton topped Q1 and Q2, but an error in the middle sector opened the door for Bottas, who has not been outqualified by a teammate in five outings at the Sochi Autodrom.

Vettel is lurking third on the grid – the position Bottas won from last year – and Wolff says asking Bottas to step aside would be difficult for many reasons.

"It is going to be difficult to tell him 'you are not allowed to race' after putting it on pole," Wolff told Sky Sports.

"We will have the conversation tomorrow morning, and let’s see how the race is going to pan out.

"That is the tricky bit here because Valtteri from P3 slipstreamed them [last year] and was in the lead.

"So you need to have a good start and be as wide as a Mercedes truck, and hope they are not having a good start because if not you have lost the race."

Despite retaining his Mercedes seat, Bottas has struggled to match his results from last year and is yet to win a race in 2018

"Valtteri knows he needs to extract everything to beat Lewis," Wolff said. "He was so pumped the adrenaline was coming out of his ears."

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