Wolff unhappy with Verstappen's treatment of Rosberg

Toto Wolff says Max Verstappen should not be so aggressive against Nico Rosberg with the drivers' championship at stake for the Mercedes driver.

Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel with Rosberg at Turn 1 at the start of the Mexican Grand Prix, with contact between the two seeing Rosberg cut Turn 2 and stay ahead. Defending Lewis Hamilton's start - in which he completely missed Turn 2 after outbraking himself - Wolff believes Verstappen's penalty for a similar error late in the race was an accumulation after his move on Rosberg.

"I think the big difference [for Hamilton] it was a lap 1 incident and on the other side you could also say that Max could have got a penalty for banging wheels with the championship leader into Turn 1 and pushing him off the track," Wolff said.

"I think maybe the penalty he got at the end was a consequence of all the driving and as refreshing as it is, and how ruthless the great ones are - and this is just my opinion and I won’t comment on the other one - if you race the championship leader three races down to the end wheel banging is not what should happen."

Verstappen later caught and attempted to pass Rosberg at Turn 4, failing to make the move stick. However, Wolff picked up on a radio message from Red Bull which he believes was designed to prevent another incident between the two.

"I think it is very refreshing how he drives and his driving is ruthless. I like that. I think that the team gave him a radio call and I am not sure, if I read it right, but when he was catching up, they said, ‘Keep it clean with Nico’. This is exactly what I would have said to him.

"You don’t bang wheels with the championship leader three races from the end. The team have given him that guidance, but maybe in the car and when the visor is down, it is difficult."

Mexican Grand Prix - Quotes of the week

DRIVER RATINGS: Mexican Grand Prix

Breakfast with Stefan Johansson

15 minutes with ... Nico Rosberg

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.