German GP a ‘disastrous result’ says Wolff
F1 News
- Bevan Youl
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has labelled the German Grand Prix a ‘disastrous result’ for the team as Valtteri Bottas crashed and Lewis Hamilton struggled.
Hamilton started on pole position and maintained that place throughout the beginning of the race while Bottas overtook Max Verstappen at the start.
But the Brit made a big error, nearly binning his car in the barriers, before coming in for a long pit stop and spinning later on, finishing 11thbut promoted to ninth for two points after both Alfa Romeo drivers were penalised.
Bottas had maintained his race without any errors in fourth after the safety cars etc. But lost grip and crashed his car into the barriers, ending his race.
Wolff said (quoted by The Checkered Flag): “This one hurts us to the core: it was a disastrous result today.
“We had a decent start of the race with good pace.
“Then obviously you add incidents, crashing out, tricky conditions, the wrong calls and in the end you’re left with zero points after running 1-2 in the opening laps.
“Lewis’s incident happened right at the pit entry, so we were not prepared when he came in and made the wrong calls afterwards.
“Valtteri crashed like many other drivers today, which made a bad day even worse for us.
“Our 200th race in F1 has been the most difficult day we’ve had in a long time, but we are united in the pain as we are united in the joy of winning.
“Today is a day for us to look at our mistakes and to learn from them, so we can come back stronger next weekend.”