Wolff questions Raikkonen, Hamilton clash 'deliberate or incompetence'

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has questioned Ferrari’s racing tactics during the British Grand Prix as ‘deliberate or incompetence’ after seeing one of his drivers hit by a Ferrari for the second time in three races.

Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was hit by Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 3 on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix which saw the Mercedes driver drop to last on track while the Ferrari driver was slapped with a 10-second time penalty for causing the clash.

Mercedes boss Wolff was riled by the incident, having seen Valtteri Bottas suffer a carbon-copy incident when Sebastian Vettel collided with him at the first turn at the start of the French Grand Prix just two weeks ago.

“A racing incident, unfortunate, because at Le Castellet the first time we got taken out and now it is the second time we got taken out,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1. “It is a lot of constructors’ points…. James Allison’s words were do you think it was deliberate or incompetence. This is where it leaves us with the judgement.

“We had this difficult weekend, qualifying on pole and P4 and then get taken out on lap one so you start on the backfoot immediately but it is just unfortunate.”

Wolff has lauded the recovery from Hamilton to battle back to second place to split the Ferrari drivers on the podium which acted as damage limitation to see Vettel push out his Formula 1 world drivers’ championship lead to just eight points.

“It was an amazing recovery from Lewis as he was dead last and ended P2 which was the maximum damage limitation we could achieve. It was a fantastic drive from him.”