Wolff: Vettel would have won US GP easily if not for spin

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff reckons Sebastian Vettel had the pace to win the United States Grand Prix “easily” had he avoided a spin on the opening lap.

A spin while battling Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap in Austin sent Vettel tumbling down the order, before the German recovered to finish fourth to delay title rival Lewis Hamilton’s championship celebrations.

Vettel pulled off a late pass on Valtteri Bottas and finished the race just 18 seconds behind Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, leading Wolff to believe he would have challenged had he not lost ground at the start.

“I think imagine Sebastian not spinning out on Lap 1, I think he would have probably won the race easily,” Wolff conceded.

“It’s stressful, the drivers’ championship, we’re in a solid position, but I always said we mustn’t drop the ball. We’ve seen that in the past with other teams, and with the constructors’ championship, that is very important for the team.

“Nothing is done yet. There are 129 points to be scored with 66 that we have. Of course that is a good buffer but there is no reason to giggle away and think that you have the trophy in your hand because we can see that we haven’t got in our hands.”

Mercedes committed Hamilton to a two-stop strategy as he was caught out by tyre blistering on the Soft compound, which curtailed his late attack on leaders Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

Hamilton ultimately settled for third but Wolff was convinced his team’s performance was simply not strong enough to win at the Circuit of the Americas for a fifth time.

“It was not a good day for us, and I feel that. But for Formula 1, I think there was some really spectacular racing between Max and Kimi and Lewis,” he said.

“Fundamentally today we lacked pace. We ran out of tyre, and that was the underlying reason why we lost the race.”

Asked if the Austin result worried him, Wolff replied: “Yeah, it does. We had three really good races, four really good races.

“Things were going our way and we understood, but today we had a car that was not quick enough. We need to find out why that was.”