Lewis Hamilton insists Valterri Bottas's success is down to his former mechanic

Lewis Hamilton insists his only current rival for the Formula One world title, Valtteri Bottas. Bottas, who leads Hamilton by a single point by virtue of setting the fastest lap in Melbourne, has won twice this season and been runner-up on the other two occasions. The Finn continued to show his prowess as a genuine title contender after topping both of Friday’s two practice sessions. At the other end of the timesheets, it was another Mercedes-dominated session as Bottas led from Lewis Hamilton – who appeared to be struggling with his No.44. Going into the fifth race of the season in Barcelona, Hamilton said: "This year he has my No 2 engineer. He has been promoted to head engineer for him. So that will be a nice helping hand and he is learning a lot from that. That's to be expected, the little bit of a step he's taken. I've got a new No 2 engineer and we are working really well together but it takes time to build relationships and to continue to grow. So when you take one element away, whatever element that is, initially it's not as strong as something you have built over six years. We are building back to being stronger and trumping that. It's only been four races so watch this space." Asked what he puts Bottas's mini-revival down to, Hamilton said: "You could say he looks a little bit more focused than he has in previous years. The things he is doing on track, which my engineer has obviously encouraged him to do, the things I was doing with settings he is now doing and he has definitely moved in the right direction. Otherwise he is the strong Finn he has always been."

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