Vettel understands "no-brainer" Mercedes team orders

Mercedes had some very obvious team orders today as Valtteri Bottas was ordered to slow down to let Lewis Hamilton past so he could win, and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel has come out to defend the criticized move from his rivals.

Bottas was in the race lead when he got told over the team radio that he had to let Hamilton past for championship reasons, as it would add seven more points to the gap between the Brit and Vettel.

Surprisingly, Vettel defended the heavily-criticized move from Mercedes, saying it was a "no-brainer" for the Silver Arrows to do it.

"Well done to both of them, they played together as a team very well," Vettel said at the press conference.

"In their defence, all the questions – I know you guys love controversy so therefore ask naughty questions to them as individuals, but I think in the position they are it's a no-brainer what they did today.

"Maybe not all the questions are justified."

Despite the massive 50-point deficit of Vettel to Hamilton with only five races to go, the German still backs himself to win his fifth title, even though he knows it won't be handed to him.

"I'm clever enough, I wasn't a genius in maths but I was clever enough to pay attention to make out for myself that it's not getting easier if we lose points," he explained.

"We have to be happy with third, and settle with that for today.

"I still believe in our chance, yes.

"Obviously it's not getting bigger if you finish behind but who knows.

"It takes one DNF and all of a sudden things look different - Ideally two!

"Which I'm not wishing to Lewis, but you never know what happens.

"We need to stay on top of our game, which maybe we haven't been completely this weekend, and make sure from where we are now we focus on winning the last races."

With Mercedes' (in)famous relentless consistency, it's hard to see Ferrari win any of the two titles, but one single DNF from Hamilton like in Austria could flip the script completely. 

Next week in Japan, though, Vettel absolutely needs to put his foot down and show that it's not over until the fat lady sings. He has to treat the last five races like five finals, and show Hamilton what he's got.