The pain everyone at Mercedes felt in issuing and receiving team orders mitigated the unpalatable events of Sunday’s race in Sochi.
Had they all shrugged it off and thought it fine to dilute the value of a grand prix victory, it would have been all the harder to bear. But, as it was, I could not honestly say I was consumed by the same burning outrage I experienced when Felipe Massa was told – albeit in code – to move aside for Fernando Alonso in Germany eight years ago.
For one, team orders were then illegal. They are not now. Nor were Mercedes trying to pretend – unlike Ferrari at Hockenheim – that they were not issuing such result-shaping instructions.
Valtteri Bottas cut a dejected figure on the podium after collecting his second place trophy
Bottas was set to win the Russian GP but team orders enabled Lewis Hamilton to take the win
And, different from then, and 2002 when Rubens Barrichello was moved aside on the very last corner in Austria (legally, it must be said, prior to team orders being banned), Mercedes were in such a particular position – one driver in the title race with just six races remaining – that necessity demanded they acted.
Valtteri Bottas started the Russian race 110 points adrift of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and out of the reckoning. Not to have favoured Hamilton by ordering Bottas to cede his place would have been negligent. Further, it would have given Bottas a greater degree of consideration than his performances this season demanded.
This was the 16th race of the campaign and he had won precisely none of them. Hamilton had won seven times. One man, given the same treatment and opportunity, had dominated the other.
Bottas (below) was told to move over in Sochi to strengthen Hamilton’s championship lead
What could Bottas expect of his bosses? After all, they brought him into the team not because he was Hamilton’s equal but because he wasn’t. They had endured enough trouble with Nico Rosberg, who, though not as prodigiously gifted as the Briton, was quick enough and smart and slick enough to cause trouble at mill.
Perhaps Bottas should have been told prior to the race that he would be sacrificed if need be, though team principal Toto Wolff probably hoped Hamilton would pass him anyway and therefore do away with the requirement to cause bad blood by choreographing events.
But Bottas can hardly complain. Because if he does not want to be considered the No 2 driver at moments potentially crucial to the destiny of the drivers’ title, he needs to perform more like the No 1.
Mercedes’ call sparked recollections of previous team orders including from 2002 when Rubens Barrichello (right) moved aside to allow Michael Schumacher to win in Austria
Sochi was our home for the 2014 Winter Olympics, where, unknown to us, the hosts were cooking up success in their laboratories.
Arriving from Moscow four years ago, I went to the bar awaiting my room being prepared. Finally, in the early hours, I asked if it was finally ready yet. I was told, yes, but there will be a man at the door.
What would he be doing there, I asked?
It turned out he was screwing it on. That is how last-minute it was back then.
Revisiting this year, more restaurants and bars have opened up through the town. And, even if the service is generally still sub-Ritz standard and the chances of starters and main courses arriving in the correct order are slim, the place has a warmer feel now than then. It was sunny too, and that puts a smile on Sochi’s face.
Hamilton and Russia president Vladimir Putin shake hands in an awkward post race exchange
It is hard to know how it could have been avoided, but Lewis Hamilton was put in an unenviable spot in having to exchange pleasantries in the cool-down room with Vladimir Putin. Here was a British driver chatting to the man accused by Her Majesty’s Government of bearing responsibility for death by poisoning on the streets of Salisbury.
Max Verstappen showed why Red Bull are backing him over Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo with a rampage through the field to finish fifth.
His bravura overtaking at the start, threading his car through the throng, and then startling elan over the next few laps, outshone Ricciardo’s own highly respectable progress from nowhere to sixth.
Verstappen is a sparkling talent, and only turned 21 on Sunday. His serial crashing earlier in the season seems a distant memory now. But with Max self-inflicted wounds will, perhaps, always come with the medals.
Max Verstappen was one of the stars of the race in Sochi as he fought through the field to fifth