Wolff: "Without the safety car Hamilton would probably have won the race"

"Very pleased! The car had performance today. We were in there to win the race and that is encouraging. We probably lost a bit of momentum after the restart but we had almost no bouncing and the pace was encouraging on the hard and the medium," the Mercedes team boss told Sky Sports.

Before the safety car was called out, Hamilton had a solid pace that allowed him to put pressure on the Ferrari drivers. Eventually, Carlos Sainz had the chance to switch to newer tyres as well, causing Hamilton to lose his advantage on the mediums. According to Wolff, Hamilton could have won the race without the safety car.

"Just the soft we didn't have the grip we needed. Without the safety car he [Lewis] would have probably won the race. In the end, it was Perez just there and Sainz just went. Most encouraging is we had a car to race," Wolff continued.

Mercedes wants to win races again

Double points were out of the question for the team, as George Russell crashed out early on after Pierre Gasly and Guanyu Zhou. The Briton did his best to still be able to take part in the race after the red flag, but the FIA did not allow this. "The rule says once you are assisted. You can't rejoin the race. He tried but it wouldn't go."

The next race on the programme is the Austrian Grand Prix. According to Wolff, the Mercedes will perform well in high-speed corners. "We just want to win races and that would be great. And, be there to fight with them. That is the target."