Wolff hints Mercedes prepared to use team orders in Monza F1 sprint

Bottas beat Mercedes teammate Hamilton by just 0.096s to top qualifying at the Italian Grande Prix and secure a front-of-the-grid start for F1’s second-ever sprint race on Saturday.

Hamilton trails Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by three points in title race and the championship leader will start the sprint race from third on the grid.

Bottas faces a back-of-the-grid start for Sunday’s Italian GP after taking his fourth power unit of the season in a “strategic” move before qualifying.

“It’s difficult generally when you have to call team orders,” Wolff told Sky Sports when asked what Mercedes’ plan is for the race. “All of us are racers and we don’t want to see that.

“He [Bottas] should be where he is on merit. But in any case, Valtteri is going anyway all the way to the back on Sunday.

“So we need to see how the start pans out because there is not too much to discuss, just be careful in the first corner and then see where they are.”

When suggested to him that Mercedes would presumably swap Bottas and Hamilton around if they remain in that order and have a gap to Verstappen, Wolff replied: “Yeah presumably.”

Bottas, who will lose his Mercedes seat to George Russell next year, was fastest in qualifying for only the second time this season.

Mercedes has enjoyed a performance advantage over Red Bull at Monza throughout the V6 hybrid era and that form continued on Friday.

But Wolff dismissed the notion that Mercedes can be considered clear favourites in Italy and at the next race in Russia.

“I think that kind of nostalgic reflection, which tracks suit which car, is not true anymore this year because we’ve been pretty strong in Hungary,” he said.

“We should have been strong in Holland, but we were lacking pace in two cars and that made all the difference. So I am not judging it, how we will do.”