Wolff reluctant to judge Verstappen and Russell incident

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff felt the collision between George Russell and Max Verstappen was an "unfortunate" situation during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Both Russell and Verstappen collided when fighting over fourth place, with the Dutchman attempting a move on the inside at Turn 14.

Russell did not spot Verstappen and turned in on him at the apex, causing the front wing endplate on the Red Bull to sheer off and damage to Russell's wheel guard.

The debris caused a Safety Car, with the stewards determining that Russell was at fault and issuing a five-second time penalty.

Russell would go onto finish fourth on the road, but was demoted to eighth at the flag, as Lewis Hamilton was promoted to seventh in the sister W14.

Wolff: Hamilton was doing Leclerc's lap times in free air

"That race summarises our season. A quick car that is that is able to fight for a podium," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365.

"With George with Max, you can't when you can be in front. I think the situation with Max was unfortunate."

Hamilton had a similarly unfortunate race after picking up a puncture passing Oscar Piastri, which forced him to drop outside of the top ten.

Wolff felt that Hamilton was matching the pace of Charles Leclerc, but admits that it was a combination of bad luck for the seven-time World Champion which prevented him from progressing.

"Would have, should have, could have. We looked at the pace in free air, we had the base of the leaders," he explains.

"When Lewis [Hamilton] had no traffic, that was pretty much where Leclerc was racing in terms of lap times.

"It summarises the season we've had. You're making your own luck, but we had more bad luck."