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Hockenheim – Mercedes Team Leader Toto Wolff denied on Monday that the use of team orders in the spectacular Grand Prix from Germany reported that Lewis Hamilton would be preferred as the number one driver.
Wolff was adamant that the triumphant Hamilton and his teammate Valtteri Bottas will remain free to play until the end of the season when there may be championships decided by such decisions.
"The race is the most important," said Wolff.
"We always said that if the championship was heading towards its last third, or the last quarter, and that there was a big difference between the drivers, then we could make those unpopular calls.
"But it's too early in the season to do that. We did it in order to bring one and two home … And we would have done the opposite.
Bottas attempted to challenge and pbad Hamilton for first place in Sunday's rain race after a safety car Sebastian Vettel crashed while he was leading for Ferrari
The two Mercedes fought side by side before Hamilton took the lead and Mercedes intervened with a radio message from the team to "maintain the position."
Hamilton, who declared his victory in Germany at 14th place on the starting grid, was considered favorite in front of Bottas as best driver number 1.
"No, absolutely not," he said. "If it was the opposite , with Valtteri in the lead and Lewis second, we would have made the same call. Identical appeal It was to bring him home regardless of who was in front. "
Wolff added that it was still raining at the time of the message and that the team did not want to take any chances.
He said," What I said to Valtteri is something that I would say also in the team. I would have done the same thing in the other way.
"It's the transparency that we have in the team, that we would not make a difference, it was important to score the double podium, the one and the two, in order to recover certain points that we lost because of bad luck. "
Hamilton's stunning victory, hailed as the greatest of his career, allowed him to get 17 points ahead of Vettel in the drivers championship race after 11 of 21 races this year . He is 66 years ahead of Bottas, fourth.
"It's a very difficult call because on one side you want to optimize the result and that's what you need to do, but on the other side you have to give both pilots a chance to win the race, "said Wolff.
Ferrari had also used the team's orders by asking Kimi Raikkonen, who had finished third, to allow Vettel to overtake him for first place.
Wolff said: "Kimi was unlucky in a few races early in the season, where the strategy was against him, and I think Ferrari struggled to find the right call there.
Sunday's result meant that leadership in the championship changed again for the sixth time this season as the tight fight between Hamilton and Vettel remained so hotly contested.
Hamilton then said he feared his lead would will again be short as teams travel to Budapest for this week's Hungarian Grand Prix, the last before the European summer holidays.
"This is not usually our track the strongest, but I hope it's not a power circuit, "he said, referring to the dusty and technical Hungaroring where chbadis performance is important.
" I hope this piece of power that F errari found does not serve them as well and we have a decent fight … "
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