"Valtteri Bottas should've taken 18 points out of Lewis Hamilton in Germany"

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes Valtteri Bottas should've gained 18 points on his team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton at the German Grand Prix on Sunday.

It was a crazy race on Sunday, and Bottas crashed out whilst in P3 with just seven laps remaining, after trying to force a move on SportPesa Racing Point driver Lance Stroll.

Hamilton crashed and broke his front wing and had to pit, with the Mercedes team not ready for their driver to come into the pit-lane, meaning the stop took over a minute overall.

Bottas could've properly caught up with Hamilton, who could only manage ninth-place, but instead the British driver gained a couple of points over his team-mate, extending his lead to 41 points.

"In his championship battle, he could have scored a decent amount of points to catch up to Lewis," Wolff claimed. "Whether it was 12, 15 or 18 points... I think it should have been 18 points.

"That would have been a jump and it didn't happen. But we are mid-term, lots more points to score. Obviously here he had a good chance to recover.

"I think when you race in Formula 1, you can feel the pain of days like these and beat yourself up a bit. But you need to recover. If you want to be a race winner and a championship winner, you need to come back strong even from these very lows. And Valtteri has shown in the past that he was able to do that."