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Wolff reacts to Bottas' spin at turn one in Mexico: It should not happen

Wolff reacts to Bottas' spin at turn one in Mexico: "It should not happen"

07-11-2021 21:03
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Toto Wolff saw Lewis Hamilton's gap to Max Verstappen in the Championship grow. Red Bull Racing also cut the gap to one point in the Constructors World Championship. The Mercedes boss calls it a day to forget for his team and he makes his frustration clear with Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes started with two cars on the front row of the grid. On Saturday, Bottas confirmed he will talk with Hamilton and form a plan to keep the Red Bull drivers behind going into turn one. But the two drivers failed to break the tow and left the door open around the outside for Verstappen to take the lead. From then, Verstappen drove into the distance whilst Bottas spun around. 

"It should not happen. We had two cars in front and we seemed to open up the sea for Max to come around the outside. Even so, the spin afterwards, and the complete loss of points when it could've been third or fourth place is annoying, to say the least. It doesn't console me, on a single lap we have the pace on the car. Overall, it's a day to forget for us," a frustrated Wolff explained to Sky Sports

Tip to Red Bull

In the heat of battle, Wolff finds the time to congratulate Red Bull. Despite the frustration above, he doesn't believe his cars would've been able to defend Red Bull even if they'd stayed ahead on the opening lap. 

"You have to congratulate Red Bull, the pace was on another level. I don't think we could've won even if we stayed ahead at the first corner. They could've driven circles around us. For Lewis' championship, it was damage limitation. For the constructor, Valtteri spinning out was very painful. I don't know what they did wrong in qualifying, but that was the pace we saw on Friday. We have to take it on the chin," Wolff added.

There are four races left on the schedule. Next week the F1 circus heads to Brazil which is another circuit that has previously suited Red Bull. "I hope we can break the pattern, it was a red bull track but we will give it all we can. There are another three coming. We need to look at the positives. Lewis drove a brilliant race with the equipment he was given to hold onto P2 because Perez was fast on Friday, that was the highlight for me," Wolff concluded.