Hamilton: “I don’t think Valtteri needs to defend his performances and I don’t feel like I need to."

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Seven time world time world champion Lewis Hamilton believes teammate Valtteri Bottas should not have to defend his results from last season - or that he should stick up for his teammate.

Bottas was unable to pose a considerable title challenge to his Mercedes teammate this season winning only two races in both Austria and Russia respectively.

There is now growing speculation over the Finn's future with Mercedes following the 2021 campaign after he was outperformed by Williams driver George Russell, who replaced Lewis Hamilton for the Sakhir Grand Prix, while the Brit recovered from Covid-19.

In an interview with Autosport, Hamilton was questioned on how impressed he was with his teammate this season.

Hamilton responded he did not know "how many nice words I could say about Valtteri."

“I don’t think Valtteri needs to defend his performance and I don’t feel like I need to. I think he’s continued to work at it and we’ve definitely had very close qualifying's, particularly this year."

“What’s really great with us is that we fight it out hard on-track but then when we’re outside, we manage to maintain a gentleman working relationship and I think that’s a big showing of his personality and character."

“I know next year he will take more steps, so I’ve got to work a way and figure out how I can find some more speed for next year.”

Despite admitting his season had been "a bit mixed", Valtteri Bottas helped guide the Mercedes team to their seventh consecutive constructors title, achieving five pole positions in that time.

Bottas added: "Of course I didn't meet my targets for the year in terms of results."

However, "there are so many positive things I can carry into next year and really turn that into a strength and try again."