Mercedes chose not to pursue action against Max Verstappen who stayed on Lewis Hamilton’s inside during the final lap of the sprint qualifier, preventing him from “starting his lap.”
The incident was described as a “revenge foul,” as Verstappen believes that Hamilton blocked him initially, as he was beginning his final lap.
Verstappen said: “He blocked me into the last corner, so I had to brake more and I lost like three-tenths, so that wasn’t ideal, I think not correct.
“There was still a few seconds on the clock so I wasn’t sure that my lap time was going to be safe so I wanted to continue but I ran out of time, space, with the two cars like that, which was a bit of a shame.”
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The Silver Arrows team principal, Toto Wolff, admitted a mistake had been made by Mercedes – for not warning Hamilton that he had been caught by Verstappen.
Wolff commented: “The mistake happened on our side. The communication between us and Lewis didn’t give him the right information to get out of Max’s way.”
The Austrian team chief insisted that this mistake was unintentional arguing that it could have cost Hamilton a penalisation.
However, Wolff believes that Verstappen overreacted, saying: “On the other side, turn one was a revenge foul, it was just to make sure that his lap is ruined.
“So one was not intentional, the other one was intentional.”
The Mercedes principal explained his rationale for not pursuing action against the Dutch driver.
He said: “Who cares? At the end, we looked at it, it wasn’t going to change our race. But I think they’re going to talk about it in the drivers’ briefing next week.”
Mercedes was not the only team to take issue with Verstappen’s racing conduct during the Austrian GP weekend.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen objected to the Dutchman holding him up during qualifying on Friday.
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The Danish racer caught Verstappen at turn one and reported to his team via radio that the Red Bull driver was “completely in the way.”
However, stewards investigated the incident and ruled that Verstappen did not hold up his rival.
Magnussen said he would be pleased if the alleged blocking was looked into but, like Hamilton and Mercedes, admitted that nothing would be gained if Verstappen was penalised.