General
Wolff thinks time penalty Hamilton a bit harsh: 'Very harsh though, for sure'
Toby McLuskie
Mercedes finished with two cars in the points during the sprint race, yet the current world championship number two had to settle for a P7 and a P8 and thus only three points. Toto Wolff particularly disagrees with the penalty Lewis Hamilton received.
Hamilton was close to a podium finish, but eventually finished seventh after a five-second time penalty for his part in the touché with Perez. "It was a tough penalty given the circumstances. Very severe though, for sure. Perez is also coming back, so he is not using the whole track. Lewis suffers understeer and then slides in," Wolff outlined the situation to Sky's German branch.
Yet the team boss did say afterwards that he could "understand the penalty". "He slides in [into Perez's car]. After that he is not completely clean either. Then he pushes him slightly out on the straight. It's all not clean. And Perez had already lost several places, so that the DNF was caused by the touché is no excuse either."
The 51-year-old Austrian noted that it was difficult overtaking at Spa-Francorchamps. Not only was there a lot of spray, which hampered visibility considerably, because of the weather conditions the DRS was not usable. Whether the use of DRS will be allowed during the race later this Sunday will be decided by the race organisers depending entirely on whether the track is dry or wet.
