Bottas: I won't settle for second best

With the driver & constructor championships already sewn up for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes before the penultimate GP in Brazil on Sunday, Valtteri Bottas’ still has all to play for as he pursues second place in the standings behind his team-mate.

The Finn has made no secret of the fact that he sees himself as being a No.1 driver in the near future, and speaking to the media on Thursday in Sao Paulo, he reiterated his desire to be the main man - or choose to not drive at all.

Bottas said: "Even though he [Hamilton] is a really, really good driver and very consistent, I also need to believe in myself. I can't put myself in a place of number two otherwise I would rather stay at home.

“Starting next year with the people I know it's going to be quite different and I just need to go for it and learn from all the hard times this year."

Hamilton finished one-tenth of a second ahead of Bottas in FP1 on Friday morning, and with the champion showing no signs of easing down towards the end of the season, Bottas feels it is unlikely that Hamilton will provide any assistance to his team-mate in his bid to finish in second spot.

The 28-year-old added: "Knowing him, for sure he wants to win the two races we’ve left.

"For sure we both want to win and hopefully we’ll be able to fight on track. I don’t know – it’s up to him if he wants to do anything else to help me secure the second place.

"As a team we know we really want to finish one and two, so it depends as every situation is always different. I think it’s not going to be easy, for sure.”