Valtteri Bottas of team Mercedes says he isn’t in a supporting role for teammate Lewis Hamilton and hopes it remains that way until the end of the season.

"I do believe we are still allowed to race freely," Bottas said. "Obviously it always goes case by case, but there is no plan at the moment for me to be in a support role. We are still on equal terms and that’s the plan for now.”

Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles told the Finnish driver to hold position during last week’s German Grand Prix as he and Hamilton battled for first toward the end of the race. Hamilton finished first with Bottas taking second. 

According to the team, the decision was not made to improve Hamilton’s title hopes (he currently holds a 17-point lead in driver standings), but rather to protect against a collision that could cost the team points considering Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel had crashed earlier in the race.

"Hopefully, it'll continue until the end of the year. Back to what happened, I think with all the difficult races we had in the triple-header, we lost so many points with different causes so I kind of get the team's position after lap one [after the late Safety Car period] we were side by side a couple of times and they wanted to get those points. I am very confident they would have done the same if I was at the lead at that point. That's how it is,” Vettel said.

Bottas has not won since last year in Abu Dhabi.

The grid will be back in action this Sunday in the Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring.