Bottas wants Russian response after team orders controversy

Valtteri Bottas enters the Russian Grand Prix with "unfinished business" following last year's team orders controversy that saw Mercedes give victory in Sochi to Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas had dominated the Sochi weekend 12 months ago and led the race from pole until Mercedes ordered him to let Hamilton through as the Brit battled Sebastian Vettel – running in third – for the title.

Fast forward a year and Bottas is Hamilton's closest challenger in the drivers' standings, albeit 65 points adrift with six races remaining.

Bottas was once again given team orders in Singapore last weekend, to prevent Hamilton from losing out amid a strategy blunder from Mercedes, but a return to one of his strongest tracks – he has one win and two podiums at Sochi – puts him in confident form.

"I've got some unfinished business in Sochi. It has normally been a good track for me and I need to make sure it will be again," Bottas said.

"It could be a good track for Ferrari with all the straights, but we're going there with a good feeling and determined to finish it better than last year and in a different way.

"With such a quick turnaround [from Singapore] you cannot do much with the car, but there will be things to do with the setup and there will also be some small bit here and there.

"But it's mainly to take the points to learn from this weekend, to learn, forget and move on.

"For me, personally, that's about it, then I'll go to Russia, we all start from zero, and I'll try to remember those good feelings from the years before and try to find that same flow I found there before and go from there."

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