Wolff stand-in responds to Russell-Hamilton argy-bargy at Suzuka

Hamilton and Russell went head-to-head on track on several occasions at Suzuka.

At one point, both drivers went off the track at Spoon as Hamilton defended the position from Russell.

• Sky commentators question Mercedes strategy: “Why change in the first place?”

The pair’s battle went down to the final laps, with a split in strategy resulting in convergence at the end of the race. 

Hamilton was able to get past Russell after Mercedes deployed team orders, leaving the latter vulnerable to Carlos Sainz behind.

Reflecting on the battle, Bradley Lord - who is acting as a Toto Wolff stand-in alongside Jerome d’Ambrosio - said: “They race each other hard on a hard-racing track. It’s easy to read a lot into those radio messages in the heat of the moment. As always, we talk about it away from the pressure and the high temperatures of the cockpit in the debrief after. 

“That’s where anything gets tidied up that needs tidying up. The one-stop worked for Lewis. With George, he was ahead of Alonso. It offered an opportunity to Sainz. It didn’t quite work out ultimately but it was worth a gamble.”

Mercedes lost further ground to Ferrari in the race for second in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull.

“It was a battle out there from the point where Lewis had contact with Perez on the straight. It put us on the back foot, we lost position on Lap 1,” Lord added. “It was a case of how far we could fight back from there.

“Lewis drove to the limit of the car on the two-stop, George rolled the dice on a one-stop. We tried to see if we could make it work. Fifth and seventh is better than sixth and seventh, and it helps to minimise the points difference to Ferrari.”