Toto Wolff: Hamilton’s drive was “mind blowing”

Mercedes motor sport chief Toto Wolff says that Lewis Hamilton’s winning drive in Hungary was ‘mind blowing.’

His opinion reflects how the team was as surprised as anyone else that the Brit was able to score such an impressive victory, when tyre management issues had been anticipated.

“It was a fantastic drive,” Wolff told this writer. “The team worked so hard from Friday onwards on the long runs, setting the car up for the long runs, and anticipating the heat. I guess this all came together.

“Lewis’s drive was for me mind blowing – down the inside, round the outside of people. Obviously we were also lucky with the strategy when Jenson slipped in front of Vettel. But you have to take these days. A brilliant drive, a great car, brilliant work from the team, and this is the result.”

Wolff conceded that, like Hamilton himself, he had been pessimistic about prospects for the race.

“I think that generally you have to be more on the pessimistic side and not be overoptimistic! We have been quite optimistic on previous weekends, and not had great Sundays. This is why we have it inside of us that we know we are struggling on Sundays. But this time we saw that preparing for Sunday, in the way we did, just worked out.”

Wolff said he had no regrets about the team being forced to sit out the Silverstone test.

“It gave us three days to think about stuff! We had the tyres on the car for the first time on the Friday, and we just seemed to do the right things.

“But it doesn’t help us in any way for Spa and Monza. We just have to keep our heads down and work hard and see where it ends.”