'Wingman' comment justified by race, not driver hierarchy - Wolff

Toto Wolff felt compelled to clarify his comment on Valtteri Bottas, when the Mercedes boss qualified the Finn as Lewis Hamilton's 'sensational wingman' after the latter's win in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Until he lost out to Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages of the race, the Finn had been running a solid second behind Hamilton for the better part of the afternoon, acting as a natural buffer between himself and the Brit.

A tangle with Vettel and then another with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo ultimately left Bottas fifth at the end of the day, but Wolff was full of praise for the Mercedes' driver's performance, qualifying Bottas as the perfect "wingman".

However, the denomination was frowned upon by the Finn when he learned of it while talking to Sky F1's Natalie Pinkman, suggesting it hurt because he considered it was too early in the season for him to play a support role at Mercedes.

• Disappointed Bottas hurt by 'wingman' designation

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Wolff later clarified his remark, insisting the label was used to define Bottas' position in the race, not in the championship.

"In today's race, starting P2, after lap one, Valtteri's race was the perfect wingman race - and I don't mean it in championship terms, because we have no number one, we have no number two, but it was just how he was racing," explained the Silver Arrows team boss.

"It was, from my standpoint, the best race so far with Mercedes in the last three [two] years."

Wolff also admitted he had been surprised by Bottas' ability to hold off the Ferrari pair of Vettel and Raikkonen while extending the life of his supersoft tyres, the Finn running 55 laps on the yellow-rimmed compound.

"We were surprised he managed to hold Sebastian and Kimi behind for 25 or so laps and we knew the last five laps would be really critical," said the Austrian.

"The bittersweet feeling I have is that he would have deserved to finish P2 – where he has started and where he was after lap one.

"But, are you saying maybe the word wingman doesn't do him justice? He just drove a sensational race and helped Lewis, in a way, to build the lead."

Looking back on his afternoon after cooling down, Bottas said he actually knew what Wolff meant by the term wingman and took no offense.

"I know what he meant," said the Finn. "And he would have said the same about Lewis if he'd be in same situation and had a similar race.

"We are on equal terms and I trust the team 100% on that. All good. We'll keep pushing! It'll come."

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