Lauda 'would have taken his hat off' to Red Bull's repair job, says Wolff

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff insists even the great Niki Lauda would have "taken his hat off" to the rapid repair work completed by Red Bull on Max Verstappen's car in the minutes ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

When Verstappen crashed into the tyre barrier 20 minutes before the start of the grand prix on the formation lap, Red Bull feared his race was over before it had even begun.

However, the mechanics managed to fix the suspension damage with literal seconds to spare, allowing Verstappen to clinch an unlikely P2, splitting the Mercedes cars.

Speaking after the race about the work done by Mercedes' rivals, he told Sky Sport F1: "Niki would have taken his hat off.

"When he ended up in the wall it didn't look like the car was participating in the race. The guys on the car really did a tremendous job."

Mercedes have won each of the first three races of the 2020 season; Valtteri Bottas with one and Lewis Hamilton adding his second on Sunday at the Hungaroring, but Wolff is wary of the threat that Red Bull, and Verstappen especially, pose to his teams' title bid.

Adding he doesn't feel the RB16 is 'a bad car', he said: "[It's] Certainly not always in the sweet spot, but the car seemed alright today and you can see, when they are there, they are a worthy competitor and enemy.

"When you look at the points, we have three victories out of three races but there is a 30 point gap. That's nothing. That is one DNF, and he wins one and the whole gap is gone.

"We just need to keep pushing."

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