Q&A TOTO WOLFF

Mercedes team boss

Toto Wolff’s Mercedes team turned qualifying disaster for Lewis Hamilton into a one-two finish.

Talk us through the turnaround… Racing happens on Sunday and this is what makes the sport so special, that it’s not always the quickest car that wins. This weekend, in qualifying and at the start of the race, Ferrari had the quickest package, but with all the circumstances coming in and the rain, it all changed in our favour. We got all the luck back that we didn’t have in the past few races.

Talk us through the final pitstops when Bottas stopped and Hamilton didn’t…

Chaos broke loose at that stage. It was very difficult to make the right call. In the various voices over the radio, he [Hamilton] made a decision to stay out which was good for us because we split the bets. That proved to be the right call.

How about the team orders?

When they started to be all over each other at the restart, it was still raining in places. We had so much bad luck in the last couple of races that the scenario of losing a car or two was just something I didn’t want to even envisage.

If Bottas was in the lead, would you have done the same thing?

If it had been the other way around, with Valtteri in the lead and Lewis second, we would have made the same call. It was about bringing it home irrespective of who was in front.

Might you use team orders in the second half of the season to boost Hamilton’s championship hopes?

No, racing is most important. If the championship goes into its last third or last quarter and there is a big difference between the drivers, then we might make these unpopular calls. But it’s much too early in the season to do this.

Were you surprised by Sebastian Vettel’s mistake?

I can relate to how that feels, it’s not nice. We need to find the right balance between attacking and keeping the lead with guys coming from behind. Today, that went against him. Whether it’s pressure, I can’t comment.