Valtteri Bottas believes there was no negative in Mercedes' decision to use him to benefit teammate Lewis Hamilton during the Italian GP.

After Sebastian Vettel had fallen to the back after contact with Hamilton on the opening lap, the race became a straight duel between the Briton and Raikkonen for victory at Monza.

When the Ferrari driver had pitted, however, he found himself stuck behind his fellow countryman, who extended his own first stint to allow Hamilton to catch up.

"I wouldn’t call it sacrificing my race because the pit window here is so big with the tyres we had this weekend," Valtteri explained.

"We opted to go for a very long first stint because the tyres were holding on well and it was good for me to have fresh tyres to attack in the end.

"But it was also good for Lewis that I could keep Kimi behind and slow him down a bit," he added. "I think we did good teamwork today."

Such was the frantic pace of the race, particularly in those eight laps between Raikkonen and Hamilton pitting, it meant the Ferrari driver wrecked his tyres, allowing the reigning world champion to make the pass for a record-equalling fifth win at Monza.

As for Bottas, he would re-ignite his race-long battle with Verstappen claiming third by default after the Red Bull driver was penalised five seconds for causing contact between the pair under braking for the first chicane.

“First my mission was to hold up Kimi for a while, but then to end up on the podium," the 29-year-old declared. "I was really trying to do everything I can to get to the podium.

"It's good to be back on the podium, it's been a tough period of races," he added with his last coming three races ago in Germany. "It wasn't an easy race for me today."

Bottas may have to get used to that kind of race, however, with the 97-point gap between Bottas and Hamilton making it all-but-certain Mercedes will be employing team orders to help the latter go on and take his fifth world title.