Valtteri Bottas is in the hunt for the 2017 world championship, according to Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.
The Finn won his second grand prix of the season in Austria, with Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo completing the podium.
"Of course he is [in the running]," Hamilton told Finnish broadcaster C More.
"He is 15 points behind me, which is closer than I am to the [championship] lead.
"Valtteri is doing a fantastic job and it definitely will be a fight to the end."
However, Bottas came very close to potentially losing his Austrian victory, with both Vettel and Ricciardo accusing him of jumping the start.
F1 steward Mika Salo told Ilta Sanomat newspaper: "From the camera, it looked like a false start. But the limits for a false start were not exceeded."
FIA spokesman Matteo Bonciani said that the electric jump-start detection system allows some car movement after the fifth light goes on as the drivers manage the clutch.
Salo agreed: "You look at the data and, according to the data, there was no jump start."
The championship continues this weekend with the British Grand Prix.
