F1 | Mercedes, Toto Wolff: “Difficult decision, but I'm happy like this”

Toto Wolff celebrates Valtteri Bottas' victory in Turkey: the Finn has not been on the top step of the podium for more than a year, precisely since the 2020 Russian Grand Prix. Bottas' race went ahead without problems: without blemish and without error anyone, Valtteri loses the lead of the race only after the pit stop, when Charles Leclerc tries in every way to stay on the track on a single set of intermediate tires until the end of the race. A strategy that Lewis Hamilton would also have liked to opt for: the world champion was forced to make a comeback from the eleventh lap, but after several battles on the track - the one with Sergio Perez is absolutely noteworthy - the wall decided to call Lewis back to the pits and Don't risk it yet. In fact, the call came seven laps from the end, perhaps a little too late, but there were many possibilities and great risks. In the end Hamilton was fifth, while Verstappen, in a not exactly top weekend for Red Bull, finished the race in second place and regained the lead of the championship standings.

"Absolute domination by Valtteri, a top-notch driving. He always had the race under complete control, not only with the pace, but his tire management was also fantastic. Congratulations to him, he had a great weekend” Toto Wolff said first.

"As for Lewis, there was a difficult decision to make. We thought we could stay out with him, without returning to the pits and taking third place. Or again, if a dry line appeared, perhaps call him back to the pits and put him on the soft. We had to decide between stopping, playing it defensively and fighting with Leclerc and Perez on the track for third position, or taking a risky risk, with the possibility of winning the race or finishing in third position – explained the team principal – as we saw, Leclerc's pace collapsed with the intermediates and so, shortly afterwards, did Lewis's and then we knew that we couldn't get to the checkered flag, we had to stop. At that point, Lewis was losing 1.5 laps to Gasly and Perez, it was only a matter of time before they caught him. In the end we are fifth and I am happy with the decision made.

"There is always an absolute point of view and a relative one: the relative one is that, in the last race, Red Bull was very happy to have lost seven points from a penalty, we lost eight, so it's not the end of the world. The absolute vision is that today we could have won three, four or five more points. But that's okay, the championship is still open and the challenge continues".