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Mercedes “seemed to open up the sea” for Max Verstappen to take the lead at the start of the Mexican Grand Prix and “that should not happen”, says team boss Toto Wolff.
Formula 1 championship leader Verstappen launched his Red Bull from third to first by using the slipstream of poleman Valtteri Bottas to get alongside the two Mercedes drivers on the outside and then braking later than the pair of them into Turn 1.
He swept around the outside to take the lead and went on to take a dominant victory, while Lewis Hamilton held on to finish second and Bottas finished outside the points having been spun by Daniel Ricciardo at the first corner moments after losing the lead to Verstappen.
Asked on Sky Sports F1 if there was anything Bottas could have done into Turn 1 after Verstappen was given space on the straight, Wolff said: “Yeah, that should not happen.
“We had two cars in front and seemed to open up the sea for Max to come around the outside.
“The spin afterwards [meant] a big loss of points with Valtteri’s car.
“It could have been a third or fourth place is annoying to say the least.”
Asked later in his media session what Bottas could have done differently, Wolff suggested there was scope to cover the normal racing line on the left-hand side of the track better.
“These cars are very difficult to judge from the mirrors what is actually happening behind you,” Wolff acknowledged.
“But I think if they would have been more to the left he wouldn’t have passed, he would have been blocked.”
Bottas suggested that Mercedes’ loss of the lead was more down to Verstappen’s late braking than any poor positioning on his and Hamilton’s part.
“The start was I think OK, not too bad but obviously Max got a bit of a tow and he braked really late,” Bottas told Sky.
Bottas said the subsequent touch from Ricciardo and later long battle with the McLaren as they both tried to recover “really ruined my race today, but obviously, I’m sure he didn’t do the initial hit on purpose”.
Ricciardo said he felt better about the clash after watching replays and seeing the touch had been smaller than he remembered.
“I thought I locked up and went up into Valtteri so I was obviously kind of kicking myself,” he said of his initial feeling about the collision.
“And then looking now at the replay, it looked like I locked up in the straightline phase and then actually recovered before turning in and it looked like there was just not enough room.
“Obviously Valtteri came across looking like he expected to have some clear track and then there was [Sergio] Perez and me.
“I don’t really blame Valtteri, obviously I’m the one that hit him.
“But honestly looking at the replay, I just think it’s a first-lap incident and it’s a matter of maybe me being optimistic but I feel like it’s one of those gaps that if you don’t go for it, someone else will and you’ll get the short end of the straw.”
Bottas was later further delayed by a poor second pitstop and was then brought in twice more to fit fresh soft tyres in an effort to set fastest lap and deny Verstappen the bonus point for it. That left him classified 15th, and though he achieved his fastest lap goal it did little to improve Wolff’s mood.
“That doesn’t really console me at that stage,” said the Mercedes boss.
“You see that for a single lap we have the pace in the car, or at least to take quickest lap away from Max.
“But overall, it’s a day to forget for us.”
