Valtteri Bottas has revealed that he wants to beat his team-mate Lewis Hamilton "fair and square" and is not interested in the world champion gifting him his first Grand Prix win of the season.
There's been rumours that Hamilton would return the favour to Bottas, who sacrificed his winning position in Sochi after team orders from Mercedes asking the Finn to help Lewis in the title race - which is now over.
Hamilton revealed earlier today that he is not planning on letting his team-mate achieve his first race win of the 2018 season.
Bottas stressed that he only wants to beat Hamilton fair and square or not at all.
"Definitively I don't want to win if it's given to me, I want to win by doing it myself," Bottas told Crash.net. "Coming here knowing that there is a possibility to win a race is obviously a good feeling.
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"You all know what my goal will be for this weekend, so it's going to be up to me and I need to perform at my best level to fight for the win.
"For sure, we both want to finish as high as we can, we want to win the race, that's how it goes. So, as a team, we both aim to be as strong as we can in qualifying and in the race.
"We all know there's a chance for us to secure the constructors' title here, but it's not something we want to think about too much."
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Japanese Grand Prix
Overview
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
02:30 AM
Practice 2
06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
02:30 AM
Qualification
06:00 AM
Sunday 29.03.26
Race
05:00 AM
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
Fri 02:30 AM
Practice 2
Fri 06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
Sat 02:30 AM
Qualification
Sat 06:00 AM
Sunday 29.03.26
Race
Sun 05:00 AM
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F1-stand 2026
Season
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | MercedesMER | 51 | |
2 | MercedesMER | 47 | |
3 | FerrariFER | 34 | |
4 | FerrariFER | 33 | |
5 | HaasHAA | 17 | |
6 | McLarenMCL | 15 | |
7 | AlpineALP | 9 | |
8 | Red Bull RacingRBR | 8 | |
9 | Racing BullsRCB | 8 | |
10 | Racing BullsRCB | 4 |
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