Wolff understands Bottas' actions: "He had another difficult day".

One of the standout moments of the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix was Valtteri Bottas not letting his much faster teammate Lewis Hamilton pass him immediately. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff does not blame the Finn.

After Hamilton made his second pit stop and fell behind Bottas, the Finn was immediately told that a much faster Hamilton was coming. When the moment came, it still took half a lap for Bottas to pull out in front of his teammate.

"The instinct of drivers is just what it is," Wolff revealed at Motorsport.com. "I had hoped that Lewis, because he was on a totally different strategy, could have passed a bit quicker. But in the end we managed to get the result in."

Bottas did not play a significant role in the Spanish GP. He got stuck behind Charles Leclerc after the start and lost a lot of time to Hamilton and Max Verstappen who were driving at the front of the field. "I can empathise with Valtteri though. He had another difficult day and then you get irritated." Wolff says he would have been a lot less forgiving if it had cost him victory.