08/07/2017
NEWS STORY
With Sebastian Vettel starting alongside Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton three rows back, many would presume that Mercedes will take a tactical approach to tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix, with the Finn backing the Ferrari driver into the clutches of his title rival with the aim of preventing the German further increasing his championship lead.
Not so insist the Silver Arrows duo.
"It makes no sense for Valtteri to slow down, so that will not be the case. It makes sense for him to push as hard as he can to win the race," said Hamilton at today's post-qualifying press conference.
"From what I have seen in the pre-race strategy notes, that kind of plan is not on," said the Finn. "We need to focus on trying to have a good start to the race and we need to win.
"Lewis can fight back from where he is starting," he continued. "If you start playing games it gets tricky, if the car behind gets DRS and the slipstream, then with just one mistake they can get the win."
Reminded of 2014 when he started ninth and ended the race in second, Hamilton said: "I'm pretty sure that back then there was a bigger difference in speed deltas between us and other cars so I think it's more unlikely than it was then, but I will give it everything I can and of course I would be happy if I could get up there."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spielberg, here.