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HOCKENHEIM, Germany -- Valtteri Bottas understands why he was told to hold position behind Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the German Grand Prix. After the late Safety Car restart, Hamilton was forced to defend from Bottas, who had the advantage of being able to push with newer tyres. Hamilton defended sternly as the two went wheel-to-wheel through the middle sector. Hamilton held the lead and on the next lap Mercedes strategy guru James Vowles came on the radio to tell the Bottas he had to stay in second position until the end of the race. Bottas says the nature of the race, which had been plunged into chaos by a late rain storm, justified the decision from his team. "After the Safety Car went out we were free to race and I think we had a nice battle with Lewis," Bottas said. "We need quite a big pace difference here to be able to overtake, being more or less on similar tyres and it would have been very tricky and there was a risk if I pushed them and made a silly mistake it wouldn't have made any sense, because we wanted to collect all the points that were possible.  "From my side the are no hard feelings, it makes complete sense, we had the battle in the first lap and that was it. I had already lost the race before that, as the Safety Car, for me, came at a really bad timing. It hasn't really been going my way..."
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