Toto Wolff: Lewis Hamilton should be admired for German Grand Prix appearance

Mercedes

Wolff: Hamilton should be admired for German GP appearance

Lewis was battling a bug.

Martin Macdonald

Monday 29 July 2019 16:15

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton should receive admiration for taking part in the German Grand Prix at the weekend, as he was not at full-health after battling an illness bug.

The Brit became ill on Friday night but managed to power through to claim pole position in qualifying on Saturday. There was speculation that he wouldn’t be able to feature in the race on Sunday, with Esteban Ocon poised to take over driving duties, only for Hamilton to eventually participate.

It proved to be a bad day at the office for the Silver Arrows man, though, as he spun into the barrier in the last corner of a lap to damage his front wing. Thereafter, he was given a time penalty, while the pitstop by the Mercedes engineers took nearly a minute due to them being surprised at the driver coming in.

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He finished outside of the top 10, only to be promoted to ninth after penalties given to Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.

Even though it was a failure of a day, Wolff respects Hamilton for taking part.

“No I think he was not healthy, he wasn’t healthy the whole weekend,” Wolff responded when asked if Hamilton was working at full capacity in Hockenheim.

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“But I think he did the most he could to get himself in an okay place for the race.

“Many of us wouldn’t have considered being in a race car but he did and he did feel better today but he can’t be physically in your best game when you’ve been ill for a few days.

“Having said that he tried to push through and that needs to be admired.”

To add to Mercedes' woes, Valtteri Bottas crashed out of the race altogether and was forced to retire.