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Toto Wolff has said that Hamilton never intended to back Nico Rosberg into in his rivals in the Hungarian Grand Prix, but admits the British driver may have been over-cautious with his tyre management.
Rosberg got close to Hamilton on more than one occasion during the race, but managed to retaliate by building up a gap every time.
"I'm sure [Hamilton] didn't want to back him up. The whole weekend we were discussing their need to be very cautious on the tyres," Wolff said in his post-race press conference. "We weren't sure if it was a two stop or a three stop and if you hear the constant messaging that your tyres might not last then you want to manage them, and they managed them very well in the first stint on the super-softs, and then he brought on the softs, we didn't have any experience of those tyres, so he over-managed it probably."
"He had everything under control and he knew that Nico was behind him, he didn't realise that the train was approaching fast and that there was a different strategy behind him, so I guess it was the complete picture and for him it looked okay and that's why he took it easy."
Hamilton has now taken the lead in the drivers' championship for the first time this season, after overturning a 43 point deficit but Wolff thinks the title race is far from over.
"I don't think [it's over]", said Wolff. "At the beginning of the season [Nico] won so many points against Lewis and you can see it swings in both directions.
"It's about avoiding mistakes, DNFs is what can cost you the championship and I think we're going to see that swing towards the end of the season. In my opinion the championship is going to go to the end."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Wolf: "I never intended to eat that chicken, it just happened to end up in my stomach"