Wolff confirms call would have been the same if Bottas was ahead

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confirmed that his team would have made the same call if it was the other way round.

Valtteri Bottas saw a chance to pass his team-mate Lewis Hamilton with not long left of the race, but Mercedes were having none of it and told the Finn to ease off his team-mate, who eventually went onto be victorious.

Toto Wolff has now clarified that the call would've been exactly the same if Bottas was winning and it was Hamilton trying to overtake him - would the outcome have been the same, though?

Wolff didn't want to risk a collision and was so desperate for the Mercedes 1-2 at Hockenheim.

"It's hard to sum up a Grand Prix like this one in a few sentences but things were unfolding in an interesting way when the rain came," Wolff told MotorsportWeek.

"Valtteri was planning to make the one-stop plan work and looked like he was in better shape with his tyres than the Ferraris ahead. Likewise, Lewis had great pace running long on the soft tyre, then was poised to hunt down the guys in front in the second part of the race.

"With so much at stake, and after the misfortune of recent weeks, we took the call to tell Valtteri to hold position; it would have been the same if the cars had been the other way round, too, because we needed to protect the one-two and avoid losing one or both cars.

"After the drama of Silverstone and then Qualifying yesterday, this is a dream result and that unpredictability is the beauty of sport. But our focus will turn quickly to Hungary, where we will have to do it all over again next weekend."