Wolff on Mercedes team orders: "Deflating but a harsh reality"

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has explained the team orders that were given to Valtteri Bottas to let Lewis Hamilton past, admitting it is deflating for the Finn but also reminding the world that that is also the "harsh reality".

Bottas, who started the race from pole position, was comfortably ahead of Hamilton throughout the race after some pressure in the first lap, which he withstood.

Halfway through the race though, it was communicated to Bottas that he needed to let Hamilton past, to the annoyance of the Finn, as Hamilton had Vettel behind him and he had degrading tyres.

Bottas gave up his place but never got it back, despite asking for it at the end. Hamilton won his eighth race of the season, extending his championship lead to 50 points to Sebastian Vettel, but it left Bottas visibly and audibly unhappy.

While Wolff understands this, he also needed Bottas to understand the reality of F1.

"We are all racers at heart and what we want to see is out and out racing, let the quickest man win," Wolff explained to Sky Sports F1.

"And then we are a bunch of rational guys and we discussed a bunch of things in the morning - and then everything is different in the race.

"This is what happened today.

"We should be over the moon with a one and two and fundamentally we are, but it still went against Valtteri. It would have been a race win for him and we changed it.

"It's deflating for drivers, it's deflating for a team.

"But there's a harsh reality also that on such a day you can extend the lead by seven points more for a championship that has been very tough and very difficult at times."

The debrief of Mercedes will no doubt be a fiery one.