Hamilton the "contrary" of a dirty driver - Wolff

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has leapt to the defence of driver Lewis Hamilton describing him as the contrary of a dirty driver following the lap one incident with Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix.

After Hamilton made contact with title-rival Verstappen at Silverstone, opinions both in the paddock and on social media were split as to whether the Mercedes driver was to blame for his opponent's 51g crash or whether it was a racing incident.

The stewards' ruled "Car 44 [Hamilton] is judged predominantly at fault" and handed the eventual race-winner a 10-second penalty.

Despite the ruling, Wolff believes some of the accusations levelled at his driver in the immediate aftermath have been far from the truth.

“When you hear the comments about his driving and the incident, Lewis is the contrary of someone that ever drives dirty," he said. "I think he is a sportsman.

"We have not seen any big incidents with him and that is why he keeps his demeanour.

“As we saw, the incident wasn’t particularly bothering him.”

Although defending his driver, Wolff conceded that instances like this will always be viewed with an inherent bias by the teams involved.

He added: “Everybody has an opinion and that is okay. Of course, everybody, every team, will have a certain bias towards incidents like that.”

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