Wolff lauds 'miracle' drive from Bottas in Baku

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes Valtteri Bottas' comeback drive in Baku was "a miracle of the sport."

Bottas' race had started disastrously. He clashed with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen going into the second corner of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Finn was then forced to pit for repairs and went a lap down.

A subsequent safety car allowed Bottas to get his lap back. After that he made determined progress and ultimately took second place from Williams' Lance Stroll at the line.

"His race was amazing," said Wolff. "Coming from so far behind and finishing in P2 was a miracle of the sport.

"His start, especially turn 2, was unfortunate. He simply bounced off the kerbs and fell far behind. We knew that his only chance to get into the game again was a safety car.

Wolff said Bottas' recovery matched that of the eventual race winner Daniel Ricciardo. The Red Bull driver also had to make an unscheduled early pit stop, dropping him to 17th place on lap 6.

"Daniel’s performance starting from P10 and finishing first and Lance on the podium - it was one of those races where anything could happen. And it did!" Wolff told the Formula 1 website.

"The unpredictability of the result was simply marvellous!"

Bottas battles back in Baku to clinch second place

The race did not go so well for Lewis Hamilton. Having led for 31 laps, he was involved in a clash with Sebastian Vettel behind the safety car. He subsequently had to pit with a loose headrest and ended the race in fifth place.

Wolff said the two incidents were not related.

"Why the headrest came loose we have to analyse with our design department," he said. "Maybe it was not properly locked. It had nothing to do with the Sebastian incident.

"I also cannot say if there were similar issues with it before. At least, I have not heard anything about it."

But Wolff did admit that the contact with Vettel has left Hamilton's car carrying damage which hindered his attempts to race back to the front.

"There was quite a bit of damage in the diffuser area, which didn’t help performance," Wolff revealed.

He strongly rejected suggestions that Hamilton had brought the setback on himself by 'brake-testing' Vettel before the restart.

"The data show that Lewis didn’t brake-test," he insisted. "Lewis didn’t do anything wrong. The data proves it."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.