After Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas fought closely for the lead in the German Grand Prix, Mercedes intervened and told Bottas to hold his position. Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team boss, talked about the team orders in the race and said that the team wanted to maintain the “lucky” 1-2 finish.
Toto Wolff: Mercedes Wanted To Preserve A “Lucky” 1-2 Finish
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What a restart from Bottas!
The Finn is all over the back of his Mercedes teammate ?#GermanGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/5CjQ33UpZe
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 22, 2018
Mercedes’ strategy chief, James Vowles, was the person who talked to Bottas on the radio. Wolff defended Mercedes’ call. It was different from Ferrari’s decision to make Kimi Raikkonen let Sebastian Vettel go through and grab the lead.
“First of all we didn’t have the quickest car here, and we need to progress for the next races because that is the most important. It was still raining at the time. The fight was so intense. There was all to lose with the bad luck that we had in the last races, and we wanted to keep it calm at that stage,” Wolff said.
Bottas said he understood the decision. “We had a bit of a battle on lap one after the safety car with Lewis,” he said. “I didn’t get past, and they told me to minimize the risk, which I understand.”
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