Lewis Hamilton will 'not bail out any more' says Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff

The BBC Sport website has audio and text commentary for the Russian Grand Prix.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team boss, says Lewis Hamilton will not back down from on-track battles if he feels he has a right.

Wolff stated that it was in response to discussions about the aggressive racing approach of Max Verstappen, Red Bull's title rival.

Wolff stated that Lewis decided to not bail out when he believes the corner is his.

"Now it takes two to understand when a collision is avoidable."

The championship fight between the pair has been filled with a variety of near-misses and incidents.

Hamilton has backed out three times of close racing situations, on the first laps in the Emilia Romagna Grands Prix, Spanish Grands Prix and Italian Grands Prix. Verstappen won every corner.

He was able to secure the lead at Imola, Barcelona and early in the season. However, the pair collided at the British and Italian races where Hamilton decided not to surrender.

Hamilton won the Silverstone race despite being penalised for the incident by a 10-second delay. Verstappen was penalised for his three-place grid position at Monza's Russian Grand Prix.

Christian Horner, Red Bull's spokesperson, said that he and Verstappen discussed all incidents on the track but that he didn't expect the Dutchman would change his approach.

"We review every incident carefully, and we always ask ourselves: "Could I do it better?" "Could I have done better?" Horner stated.

Max is very open to this. He is very self-critical. He is always learning.

He's a tough racer. It's part of his personality - it's part of the reason he has the following.

"You can tell he will give 110%, and that impacts the driver he races because they know he is going for it.

"But there must be measure and he has shown it at the right times, even in different races this season, but it is part his character, that he's an attacking driver.

"It's part and parcel of his make-up, and I don’t believe it’s going to change."

Both drivers admitted that there would be more incidents in the remaining races of the year.

Wolff stated that they know their stuff. We would see less if we wanted to avoid collisions. If they feel that it is right to not bail out, we will see more.

Horner stated: "We want it be a really competitive and clean run-in towards the end of the season, but when they start next to each other Max is a no quarter type of guy, and Lewis has shown he doesn’t want to give any of that either."