Wolff: It was all my fault

– Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff has blamed himself for the “team orders” controversy that engulfed Lewis Hamilton’s victory in Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix.

The Austrian said he was talking to chief strategist James Vowles when they should have called in the Briton for his first pit-stop and as a result he pitted a lap too late.

This, he said, created the scenario that led to Hamilton fighting to pass title rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari on track and a subsequent need for team orders to protect the defending champion, with blistered tyres, from a Vettel attack.

“Somebody needs to be the baddie sometimes and it’s me this time,” said Wolff.

The switch of positions that deprived Valtteri Bottas of a deserved win on the Sochi Autodrom track where he claimed his maiden triumph last year left him glum-faced after the race with Hamilton embarrassed at the means by which he won.

Wolff said the decision was not pre-determined.

“I take it on me because I was engaging with James in a conversation when he should have made the call. We came in a lap too late and lost the position.” –

Sochi