Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc Silverstone battles were dirty - Mercedes boss Toto Wolff

British GP

Verstappen, Vettel, Leclerc battles were dirty - Wolff

Not sure everyone will agree with that!

Matthew Scott

Monday 15 July 2019 15:57 Updated: 17:22

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff appeared to suggest the battles between Max Verstappen and Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel at the British Grand Prix were examples of dirty racing.

Verstappen battled with Leclerc before and after the safety car period in Sunday's race, eventually getting the better of the Monegasque, having kept his foot to the floor after being barged wide at the final corner to speed back past Leclerc before Turn 1.

After moving past team-mate Pierre Gasly, Verstappen then passed Vettel around the outside of Stowe, only for the Ferrari man to rear-end him at the next braking zone, impacting both drivers' races.

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The thrills and spills between Mercedes' rivals came after Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had engaged in a similarly exciting fight at the start of the race, moments Wolff said bore little resemblance to what followed.

"I thought it was very good racing between the two of them, certainly very entertaining, nobody could say that there wasn't hard defending, but it wasn't dirty," Wolff said about Hamilton and Bottas.

"What I think we've seen between some of the other drivers is borderline dirty.

"There is always dirtiness we want to see out there in racing and it is good when it is drivers going against each other but not in the same team.

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"This is exactly what we debated in the morning [before the race]. I don't want to see any of this in an intra-team battle and I have no doubt they know how to race each other.

"We have seen that on many occasions between Lewis and Valtteri, they respect each other off track and they respect each other on track, to take it another step it is fair enough if you race against another team."

Sergio Perez lost a front wing in combat with Nico Hulkenberg, while Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris made contact in an exciting duel at the start in other instances of tough racing at Silverstone.