Wolff sees refreshed Hamilton: "It's like it never happened to him"

Lewis Hamilton is back in the car and Mercedes are again at the top of the timesheet after the second free practice. Verstappen was seven tenths behind Valtteri Bottas in third place.

Hamilton all the way back

Although Hamilton has yet to acknowledge his superior in Bottas this weekend, he seems completely back to normal. His team boss sees that too. "I don't know. You have to speak to him. How he appears to me. He looks fit and is in a good space. It's like it never happened to him," Wolff tells Sky Sports F1.

At the end of the second free practice, there was a technical problem with Hamilton's car when he came to a standstill in the pit lane. “We had a clutch issue and then the car wouldn't restart. He reset it and was able to start," Wolff said. 

Bottas strong into the winter

Bottas has not been able to convince in recent weeks, but Wolff is not worried about that. "It's important for him to come out of this strong and go into the winter with some tail wind. He knows how to get himself in a good place. I just see it in his eyes that this is going to be much better. In this team everybody has to be a team player and if you want to go on your own that is the wrong place to be and Lewis is a fantastic team player and Valtteri as well. I have no doubt George will be."

Next week, Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries get into the Mercedes to test. Therefore there was no room for Nikita Mazepin. "We have had an extensive testing programme with him [Mazepin] throughout the year in a two year old car but for the young driver test we decided on the line-up over the last few days and providing the opportunity to Stoffel and Nyck is good. They are our works drivers."