Toto Wolff was full of praise for Lewis Hamilton after the Brit selflessly allowed teammate George Russell to pass without a fight during the Miami Grand Prix.
Russell was always better placed to score good points for Mercedes, starting sixth. But Hamilton had a wretched qualifying session and was left with plenty of work to do from the 13th grid slot.
Mercifully for the Brits, race day turned out to be much more enjoyable for Mercedes. Russell gained a couple of places to finish fourth, while Hamilton overcame a slow start to the Grand Prix to complete several impressive overtakes on the way to sixth place.
The seven-time world champion's contribution did not end there as he also played a role to aid Russell's charge. The younger Brit pitted first and came out behind his team-mate, prompting some instructions over the radio.
"We have George 1.1 behind. We aren't racing him. We are racing Esteban Ocon. So let's not hold each other up," was the message to Hamilton from his race engineer. The reply from the racer was: "He can go by but I am not backing off though," before Russell was let through.
Mercedes which Wolff said he knew Hamilton was not going to cause any trouble in that situation and was full of praise for his drivers. "No, absolutely not. George was a stop ahead," said the Austrian when asked about it after the race.
"To see two teammates, both on very good levels, they are both so straightforward. That is good at such a difficult moment. The car was good today. From P13 it's pretty difficult if you start on the same strategy as everyone else to pass.
"Therefore we went with hard [tyre compound]. Then we saw others had thought the same. Considering the strategy hope that we had, that nobody would start on the hards, was diminished, he drove a great race."
Unsurprisingly, Red Bull dominated the Grand Prix with Max Verstappen rising from ninth on the grid to get the better of his team-mate Sergio Perez and take the victory. Fernando Alonso completed the podium to continue his fairytale start to the season, while the Ferraris were split by Hamilton in fifth and seventh.
