Podium is minimum target for Hamilton - Wolff

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton's target in the Grand Prix of Europe is to at least reach the podium from 10th on the grid.

Hamilton endured a difficult qualifying session, making numerous mistakes and eventually breaking his front right suspension as a result of clipping the wall at Turn 11 in Q3. While championship leader Nico Rosberg will start from pole position, Wolff has named Hamilton's target of recovering to the podium.

"Nico starts the race from the best position possible and all is not lost for Lewis. There's lots of opportunity out there if you survive the first lap and this should be one of the easier circuits for making up ground thanks to the long straight. I think we have a pretty exciting race in store - and we'll be racing to get both boys to the podium."

Hamilton flat spotted his front left tyre in Q2 but has been allowed to change it for a different used tyre ahead of the race. Wolff says Saturday was simply an off day for his driver which is accentuated on a street circuit.

"If we are having a bad day, whatever you write or whatever I say is probably not very good, but it hasn't got the dramatic effect of when he drives a racing car on a street circuit. That was I guess just one of the bad days, he didn't get into the rhythm and if you're not in your rhythm around the street circuit like this you are making mistakes.

"He was blindingly fast in the first sector, in a league of his own, but just couldn't put the sectors together."

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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.