Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton tried to pass his title rival Verstappen on lap 48 for the lead of the race on the outside of Turn 4 but Verstappen ran deep into the corner and both cars had to take to the run-off.
But Lewis eventually blast past Max Verstappen on lap 59 to take incredible win and cut the championship deficit to 14 points.
But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff called the decision not to investigate or punish Max Verstappen in the Brazilian Grand Prix “laughable” and said a controversial Formula 1 weekend left him “losing faith in a way”.
Speaking to the written media after the race, Mercedes F1 boss Wolff noted how the “whole weekend went against us” amid the various stewards’ decisions, notably Hamilton’s exclusion from qualifying on Friday.
“We had a broken part on our rear wing which we couldn’t look at, couldn’t analyse, failed the test, and after disqualified, very harsh,” Wolff said.
“And then you see on the Red Bull repairs, three times in a row on a rear wing whilst being in parc ferme with no consequence.
“That’s one thing, and obviously that really peaked with the decision in the race, which was, I mean, really wrong defence from Max, absolutely an inch over the limit, but he needed to do that to defend.
“Lewis just managed it even more brilliantly by avoiding the contact and end the race that way.
“But that was just over the line, it should have been a five-second penalty at least. Probably Max knew that. Just brushing it under the carpet, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s just laughable.”
At the end of Wolff’s debrief with written media he laughed when he received notification that Mercedes had been summoned to the stewards because Hamilton undid his safety belts on his slow-down lap after the grand prix finished. He was fined €5,000 for that matter.
In an answer before that news broke, Wolff said he knew the stewards “have a difficult life and they are only there to lose, whatever decision they take one team is going to be grumpy”.
“But in a certain way when you’re taking punches all weekend, and then you have such a situation on top of everything, you’re just losing faith in a way,” he added.
Wolff said he was left feeling “angry” by how many times Mercedes felt it was receiving “punches in the face” on decisions that he felt could have gone either way.
“I will defend my team, my drivers,” he said. “I’ve always been very diplomatic but diplomacy ended today.”
Wolff also said that while he was all in favour of hard racing between drivers, the rules had to be applied consistently.
“Whatever is in the director’s notes, we’re going to accept,” Wolff said.
“I’m also OK if the director’s notes are going to be shredded and we just race hard like we did today, fine.
“But if the director’s notes say that you cannot push anybody off the track in Mexico, and then obviously that’s valid here too, and then you’re actually being driven off the track, it’s just not very consistent.
“My discussion with the race director was not broadcasted, but my reaction was. We feel we’ll discuss it behind closed doors.”
