Hamilton reveals awkwardness after Russian GP

The Russian Grand Prix was a tough one for Valtteri Bottas after his teammate, Lewis Hamilton was permitted to pass him following team orders. However, the Brit has admitted he wants to avoid a repeat of this in 2019.

Bottas was ordered to move over to allow Hamilton the race victory but Hamilton has admitted he does not enjoy winning races in this way.

“I really hope that there’s never a scenario like this again,” Hamilton told Mercedes’ team website.

“By this point in the year the team were like, ‘we’re going to do everything to make sure, Lewis is now so far ahead you can’t catch him in the Championship so now we’ve got to start supporting him to make sure we tie up both Championships’.

“Ultimately Valtteri was quicker that weekend and deserved to win.”

Hamilton, who secured a fifth World Championship in 2018 admitted it wasn’t comfortable for him to receive that call.

“But it was really awkward.

"when I got the call that Valtteri was going to let me by, I can’t remember exactly, I think I said something like ‘just tell him to speed up’.”