Toto Wolff has put a sudden halt to speculation Valtteri Bottas may be ousted from Mercedes. “George did a phenomenal job last weekend and he deserves to be in a great car one day,” Wolff said. Wolff says he understands how Bottas must have been feeling amid the on and off-track goings on surrounding Russell’s sensational Mercedes debut. Indeed, Wolff suddenly and unusually radioed Bottas in qualifying to tell the Finn to “give it all you have”. Bottas explained that it had been a “personal thing” – and Wolff confirmed that the 31-year-old had asked for some more public encouragement. “It’s difficult, because I don’t usually want to do that,” Wolff said.

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