Wolff responded angrily as allegations swirled on social media after the Russian Grand Prix, which was won by Hamilton’s Mercedes colleague Nico Rosberg.
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“It’s been an awesome weekend, the car’s been fantastic” before bigging up Russian F1″, Rosberg said in a statement, via The Guardian.
The defending three-time champion said also that he felt very grateful to the team for helping him finish the race and score 18 points.
“I am just aware that there is most likely going to be at least one 10 place penalty in the future because I have got one more reprimand to go”, he told reporters after fighting from 10th on the grid to second on Sunday. “It’s always going to be a tough battle against him because he’s as motivated and as quick as ever”.
Hamilton was unable to take part in Q3 and provisionally will line up in 10th place on the grid.
Whether he could have caught Rosberg was doubtful – the German demonstrated he could produce blistering pace when needed with a fast lap just before the end. “But I have absolutely every bit of confidence and faith in them”, Hamilton said. “Without that, I wouldn’t have got to this point”.
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said the team had “let Hamilton down with the engine” and that they would urgently try to get to the bottom of the problems. The exact same problem had plagued Hamilton’s race weekend in China recently.
After the race’s only round of stops, Hamilton remained stuck behind Valtteri Bottas’ Williams, but passed him swiftly.
For Rosberg, it was a second successive pole in Sochi and the 24th of his career, ensuring he has the best possible chance to tighten his grip in the championship.
But the engine difficulties that are plaguing Hamilton are surely a concern to the Mercedes engineers given that Rosberg’s power unit was giving odd signals too.
The triple world champion managed to cut the gap to the lead to 7.7s. when he was informed over team radio that he had to nurse a water pressure issue.
His lead in the world championship now stands at 43 points – nearly the equivalent of two full race victories.
Ferraris’ Kimi Raikkonen finished in the third place after team Mercedes pilots. At the same time, Rosberg made history by becoming the fourth driver (after Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel) to win seven races in a row. Vettel vented his anger at the poor driving.
Kvyat apologized to Vettel. “All I could do was apologise, because this week it was unfortunately a mistake from Dany”, he admitted.
His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was also damaged in the first-lap chaos and finished 11th. Force India’s Sergio Perez was ninth.
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Max Verstappen pulled off track on lap 34 with reported engine problems on his Toro Rosso auto.
