Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has firmly said that he is not Lewis Hamilton‘s rear gunner just yet. His comments came on the back of being ordered to hold position in the German Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver was battling his Mercedes teammate for the lead after the safety car restart. He even managed to pull up alongside him as they approached the hairpin.

However, Mercedes strategy chief James Vowles radioed Bottas to cease duelling and maintain second position.

Mercedes later explained the reason behind the decision to impose team orders. They said that the team was not thinking about Hamilton’s title. Instead, they wanted to avoid a collision that could cost the team points. It was far more important as Lewis’ title rival Sebastian Vettel had crashed out earlier.

Bottas said that the team did not change their policies and that he was still free to fight for wins.

“I do believe we are still allowed to race freely,” he said. “Obviously it always goes case by case, but there is no plan at the moment for me to be in a support role.

“We are still on equal terms and that is the plan for now and hopefully it will continue to the end of the year.

“What happened, with all the difficult races we had in the triple header, we lost so many points with different causes, so I kind of get the team’s decision after lap one.

“We were side-by-side and they wanted to get those points. I am confident they would have done the same if I was in the lead at that point.”

According to the Finn, instructions about not letting Hamilton pull away, never came. Meanwhile, Hamilton was urged to push until the chequered flag. But the order was only as a precaution in case he was penalised for cutting across the pitlane entry.

“I wasn’t aware of his pitstop situation, that he had to go over the line,” said Bottas. “That is why I wasn’t really trying to be in one second because everything was set by us then.”