Mercedes did not sacrifice Valtteri Bottas for Lewis Hamilton Baku pole bid - Wolff

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Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Mercedes did not sacrifice Bottas for Hamilton Baku pole bid - Wolff

Bottas lapped ahead of Hamilton to provide a beneficial tow in qualifying

Sam Hall

Saturday 5 June 2021 17:00

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has dismissed speculation the team sacrificed Valtteri Bottas to assist in Lewis Hamilton's bid to secure an unlikely pole position in Azerbaijan.

In Q3 of a red-flag dominated qualifying session, Hamilton was led out onto the track by team-mate Bottas, with the Briton clearly hoping to benefit from a tow on the two-kilometre drag to the finish line.

Hamilton went on to produce a time good enough for second behind the polesitter in Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with F1 title rival Max Verstappen lining up third.

Asked directly if Mercedes had effectively sacrificed Bottas, Wolff categorically replied: “No."

He added: "Since the beginning of the joint journey [with] Valtteri and Lewis, we have tossed a coin who would have the choice to decide if they were running first or second.

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'This weekend it was Lewis’ turn to choose if he ran first or second on the road. He chose second obviously.

“So this is the same system. It alternates from race to race between the drivers.”

Mercedes 'extreme engineering programme' yields results

Mercedes ended Friday practice with Hamilton 11th and Bottas 16th and although the latter was capable of claiming 10th on the grid, the Saturday pace of both drivers was a vast improvement.

“In FP3 we worked through some really thorough engineering programmes and we were not shy of trying extreme things which at the end were as extreme as we had expected and weren’t a silver bullet," said Wolff.

“But it was just really crunching through the numbers, trying things, getting the feedback of the drivers and eventually we had the car in a more decent place.

“So it was the last run in FP3 where we tried to confirm the step and the car was there or thereabouts.”