Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff is prepared to use team orders, if necessary, to help Lewis Hamilton secure his fifth drivers' championship in Sunday's United States Grand Prix. The Austrian boss told reporters late on Saturday in Texas that he did not have a pre-meditated plan for the race in which four-time champion Hamilton needs to outscore Sebastian Vettel by eight points to take the title.

"If, at the end, we find ourselves in a situation where we again need to evaluate the points we'll do that, but I don't want to commit to saying now whether or what we will be doing," he told reporters. He said he hoped that Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas would make a strong start to the race and keep Ferrari's Vettel, who starts fifth on the grid, behind him. Four-time champion Vettel qualified second, but has taken a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flags in Friday's practice. Raikkonen was third-fastest in the second Ferrari ahead of Bottas in the second Mercedes with Daniel Ricciardo fifth for Red Bull. Esteban Ocon was an impressive sixth for Force India ahead of Nico Hulkenberg of Renault, Romain Grosjean of Haas, Charles Leclerc of Sauber and Sergio Perez in the second Force India.