Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has clarified the decision to call off the fight between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas at the German Grand Prix by asserting that the team would have made the call regardless of who was the lead driver.
Bottas led the race after Sebastian Vettel's crash but opted to stop to take on Ultrasoft tyres, dropping to second, as Hamilton stayed out on track, having made a later stop on account of using Softs for the first stint.
Bottas was keen to make that advantage count as he challenged Hamilton for the victory as the green flags came out again, the pair running side-by-side through the middle phase of the lap.
But shortly after the battle was called off, with the pair instructed to hold station.
GERMAN GRAND PRIX: Photo gallery | Championship standings
Wolff felt with the championship so finely poised and having endured some tough luck during the recent 'triple-header', protecting a 1-2 finish on home soil was the priority for the team instead of potentially losing everything had the pair collided.
"It's hard to sum up a Grand Prix like this one in a few sentences but things were unfolding in an interesting way when the rain came," said Wolff.
"Valtteri was planning to make the one-stop plan work and looked like he was in better shape with his tyres than the Ferraris ahead. Likewise, Lewis had great pace running long on the soft tyre, then was poised to hunt down the guys in front in the second part of the race.
"Things were pretty chaotic when the Safety Car came out – it was a very late call, a lot of traffic on the radio and we ended up with one car in the pits and one car out on track. In the end, this covered every option for us – then the battle was on when they went back to racing.
"With so much at stake, and after the misfortune of recent weeks, we took the call to tell Valtteri to hold position; it would have been the same if the cars had been the other way round, too, because we needed to protect the one-two and avoid losing one or both cars.
"After the drama of Silverstone and then qualifying , this is a dream result and that unpredictability is the beauty of sport. But our focus will turn quickly to Hungary, where we will have to do it all over again next weekend."
Mercedes jump into the lead of the Constructors' Championship and move eight points clear of Ferrari after the strong result in Hockenheim.
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