Wolff explains Mercedes strategy calls

Toto Wolff has explained why Mercedes was unable to put Lewis Hamilton on a different strategy to Nico Rosberg in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Hamilton attacked his team-mate in the second stint of the race at Interlagos but was unable to get close enough to overtake, leading the triple world champion to ask Mercedes to put him on a different strategy. Originally told that wasn't an option, both Mercedes drivers were then switched from a two-stop to a three-stop strategy.

Wolff says Mercedes was only able to react once there was no threat from Sebastian Vettel in third place, by which time it was too late to do anything different with Hamilton.

"A fantastic 1-2 finish for the team this afternoon and a great feeling to see Nico secure P2 in the Championship with this win," Wolff said. "He put in a faultless performance this weekend with a strong pole position lap and then a beautiful drive today.

"For Lewis, running P2 was always going to be difficult at this track. As soon as you get close to the car in front, you lose downforce and the tyres start dropping off. When that happened in the second stint he asked about an alternative strategy. But the only option was to convert to three stops which was ten seconds slower in terms of overall race time and would have put his second place at risk to Vettel.

"Then, the situation changed in our favour when Vettel converted to a three-stop strategy, which allowed us to do the same and control any threat from behind to the end of the race.

"The boys were pushing flat out to the finish but Nico was able to manage the gap to the end to take a well-deserved win. We're looking forward to seeing this season's final installment of the battle between Lewis and Nico in two weeks' time in Abu Dhabi."