Bottas dismisses team orders after earning pole in Sochi

Valtteri Bottas says that he hopes team orders will not become a factor in the Russian Grand Prix after scoring pole position and retaining his unbeaten qualifying record against teammates in Sochi.

The Finn put together a lap good enough to put his teammate under pressure which ultimately paid off with Lewis Hamilton making a mistake at turn seven on his final run to leave Bottas unchallenged for pole.

Speaking after qualifying, Bottas said he hoped that team orders wouldn't play a big role in the race, reminding everyone of the gap Hamilton currently has over his championship rival, Sebastian Vettel.

“My approach to the race tomorrow is definitively to try and win the race – you cannot have any other goal starting from pole,” Bottas said.

“It’s just going to be the aim. As a team we’re fighting for both championships. Lewis is leading the championship by quite a gap to Sebastian and a very big gap from me, so we have to keep those things in mind.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admitted that a conversation would happen before the race tomorrow about the plan for both drivers with the pair starting alongside each other on the front row.

"We will have the conversation on Sunday morning and see how the race is going to pan out," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

Considering the advantage Mercedes appear to have over Ferrari, could Bottas be allowed to win in Russia?