Toto Wolff has defended Mercedes chief strategist James Vowles after the team failed to pit Lewis Hamilton under the virtual safety car, a mistake which effectively wiped any chance away of Hamilton winning the race.
After Valtteri Bottas suffered a hydraulic issue, the virtual safety car was deployed leading to Ferrari and Red Bull both double stacking their drivers to pit under the VSC as a pit stop cost in terms of time is much less than in normal racing conditions.
"We made a mistake and what I think happened is that we were running one and two and controlling the race and suddenly you see Valtteri stopping with a hydraulic leak.
"The VSC came out, we had half a lap to react and we didn't. Fact. This is where we lost the race.
"At that stage with the VSC, pitting is probably the 80 percent the thing you need to do. With one car out there against two others, the thinking process was what would happen if the others split their cars?
"If we pit Lewis would we come out behind Kimi Raikkonen or behind Max Verstappen and what would that mean for the race? I wouldn't say it distracted us, but that thinking loop, we spent too much time on that."
James Vowles apologised to Hamilton during the race for the mistake that ultimately may have caused Hamilton to retire from the grand prix. The mistake having meant the Mercedes driver was pushing harder in traffic to make up for the lost time.
"I have thrown away the win today, but you have the opportunity to get back up... I'm sorry."
It isn't the first time Mercedes has been too late to blink under the virtual safety car, Hamilton also lost the first race of the season in Australia after Ferrari cleverly pitted Sebastian Vettel under the virtual safety car whilst Mercedes left Hamilton out.
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