Mercedes must be “really aggressive” in F1 title race - Wolff

Lewis Hamilton’s 100th career victory at the Russian Grand Prix saw him retake the lead of the world championship from title rival Max Verstappen by just two points.

It marked his and Mercedes’ first victory since July’s British Grand Prix and Wolff admitted his side has missed clear points-scoring opportunities in recent rounds.

“We, in a way, we're not maximising our points scoring, and the same today," Wolff said after the race.

"I think quali was all decisive. Valtteri going back, we knew it was difficult, and we ended up with a first and fifth, and that is very good, no doubt about that, and it's Lewis's 100th victory.

"But Max recovered in a spectacular form, and that is not good for the championship.

"So in a nutshell, we just need to continue to be really aggressive in how we approach this season, not be defensive, but just move forward, in order to score these big points. Because neither us nor the others are really good at maximising the points at the moment.”

Wolff believes trying to predict a favourite on any given weekend has become too difficult due to the way the regulation changes have closed the performance gap between Mercedes and Red Bull this year.

"I stopped trying to anticipate whether it's historically a strong race for us, because everything with the new regulations, everything changes, so has changed so much," Wolff said.

"Definitely, we knew that Monza and Sochi would be coming more towards us. And the reality is we are where we are, and this is the points gap and I doubt that any of the two teams will make massive swings up or down.

"It's just about, really, to continue to do the best possible job.”

And Wolff stressed that Mercedes cannot take “any comfort” from Hamilton’s slender points advantage over Verstappen, nor its own 33-point buffer to Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

“I think neither driver, neither team can have any comfort in the current situation because there is just no gap in terms of points,” he explained. “I think this [title race] is going to go very long.”