The Austrian boss told reporters late on Saturday in Texas that he did not have a pre-meditated plan for the race in which four-time champion Hamilton needs to outscore Sebastian Vettel by eight points to take the title
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff is prepared to use team orders, if necessary, to help Lewis Hamilton secure his fifth drivers' championship in Sunday's United States Grand Prix. The Austrian boss told reporters late on Saturday in Texas that he did not have a pre-meditated plan for the race in which four-time champion Hamilton needs to outscore Sebastian Vettel by eight points to take the title.
"If, at the end, we find ourselves in a situation where we again need to evaluate the points we'll do that, but I don't want to commit to saying now whether or what we will be doing," he told reporters. He said he hoped that Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas would make a strong start to the race and keep Ferrari's Vettel, who starts fifth on the grid, behind him. Four-time champion Vettel qualified second, but has taken a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flags in Friday's practice. Raikkonen was third-fastest in the second Ferrari ahead of Bottas in the second Mercedes with Daniel Ricciardo fifth for Red Bull. Esteban Ocon was an impressive sixth for Force India ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Renault, Romain Grosjean of Haas, Charles Leclerc of Sauber and Sergio Perez in the second Force India.
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Finn Bottas has been given team orders to assist Hamilton before this year, notably at the Russian Grand Prix where he let him pass and Hamilton won the race. Thanks to that and his own phenomenal form in the second half of the season, Hamilton is seeking his seventh victory in eight races since the British Grand Prix, won by Vettel, in early July. "The objective for Valtteri is really to go for it at the beginning — he hasn't got a lot to lose — and to show us a strong race," said Wolff. If Mercedes are in a similar position to that of Russia, where Bottas led Hamilton before orders were given, they are likely to switch them again to secure the title. Hamilton, with a late flying lap, got narrowly ahead of his rival Vettel at qualifying and admitted it was close: "That was close. I knew it was edgy between us on my last run, but my second lap was better."
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