Toto Wolff has defended Mercedes’ decision to put 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton on a two-stop strategy after he initially lost out to F1 teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:George Russell at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton later was handed a 105th victory of his F1 career when Russell was disqualified due💮 to an underweight car.

Hamilton was on a two-stop strategy - and on fre🦩sher tyres - while Russell was the only driver in the top﷽ 10 to make just one pit stop.

Track position proved to be critical as Russell fended off Hamilton to beat him൲ on-track.

Hamilton appeared to be frustrated after the race at Spa, sa💝ying to Oscar Piastri in the cooldown room that his tyres were completely fine when he came into the pits on both occasions.

Speaking to Sky after the race, Wolff explained wꦚhy they had no choice but to pit Hamilton.

“I’d like to have two winners to🤪day,” he said. “But we had to cover Leclerc and Norris because we would’ve been undercut, so that was the call. George had nothing to lose. We were P5.

“The one-stop and the two-stops were showing P5 so we just kept him out. ♑He was very good. Lewis was very good.

“The strategy played for George, and not for Lewis. I’d like to have two winn𝔉🍰ers today.”

Assessing Russell’s strategy, Wolff conceded that he didn’t think the one-s🤪top strategy “was possible”.

“We didn’t think it was possible,” he added. “But, at a certain stage, we said ‘let’s stay out’ because we wouldꦜ have finished fifth anyway, in both scenarios. He made it last.”

Even fa꧙ctoring in Russell's DQ, it’s been a remarkable turnaround for Mercedes🌌, having not finished on the podium up until the Canadian Grand Prix.

Since then, Mercedes have wꦿon thre🤡e races out of four.

Wolff credited their turnaround on Friday after a disappointing showing in the Frida꧋y practice sessions.

“On Friday we weren’t competitive, so we expected, in the best case, a podium,” he expl𝄹ained. “Then the team did really work well overnight in Brackley. The engineers at the track took the right decision. The car was good on a one-stop.

“Overnight Friday to Saturday, Shov said ‘we’ve figure🍎d out what it is’. Their deci✱sion was good.

“We changed the floor. But I don’t think the new floor was bad. On tꦍhe contrary, we found overnight that we’d tripped on a mechanical issue. We saw🐠 that the mechanical issue on the car was better. The new update on the car will come to Zandvoort - that was not the issue on Friday.”