Mercedes chief Toto Wolff hopes Lewis Hamilton LOSES to Valtteri Bottas

The Finnish driver, who was a late call-up to the 2017 team after Nico Rosberg’s shock retirement, won three pole positions in Russia, Austria and Abu Dhabi.

Lewis Hamilton won the Drivers’ Championship with two races to spare, beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with eventual ease.

However, he was beaten by Bottas on three occasions which earned the 28-year-old a 12-month contract extension.

But questions now hang over his place with Mercedes beyond the next season.

And Wolff has backed him to prove his worth and continue batting Hamilton for the top spot and has urged him to repeat his victory from Abu Dhabi – even if it is at Hamilton’s expense.

“I think it’s important to see that Valtteri continues what he has done in the first half of the year,” Wolff said.

“What we have seen in Brazil and what we have seen in Abu Dhabi and then it’s a no brainer (to extend his deal).

“We like working with Valtteri and with Lewis, the two fit well together.

“They have a good dynamic in the team and see no reason to change it if we continue on from where we are today.”

Wolff has highlighted the area where Hamilton holds the advantage, which is in being able to maintain his tyres in the most difficult circumstances.

“His confidence has been coming back in the last races and we saw a really good great qualifying in Brazil and a great qualifying in Abu Dhabi,” Wolff added.

“We’ve never doubted Valtteri’s raw speed.

“You could see that the difficulties in the interaction with the tyres with the chassis and finding the optimum setup to have the tyres in the sweet spot – this is something that has worked much better for Lewis albeit being very difficult.”