Wolff clarifies Mercedes rules of engagement after Bottas "miscommunication"

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes there may have been "a miscommunication" with Valtteri Bottas after the Finn was left frustrated at being unable to make a move on Lewis Hamilton early in the Belgian Grand Prix.

From their front-row lockout, Bottas managed to keep polesitter Hamilton in his sights over the opening few laps, but never get close enough to get into DRS range and launch an attack on his team-mate.

At one stage Bottas asked over the radio: "We have one push, no?", to which the response from his engineer was: "We do, but we agreed not to use against each other." The puzzled Finn then said: "I never heard of that."

Asked as to the rules of engagement between the duo, Wolff said: "There are no rules in place between the two drivers. They are allowed and free to race."

Attempting to clear up the issue regarding the high-power overtake mode, Wolff claimed it was only to be used should either driver require it against a rival such as Max Verstappen and not against each other.

"In the morning we had agreed and discussed that we obviously have a limited amount of overtakes and that we would try to not use them against each other, or the last one against each other," added Wolff.

"Because there is always the risk of needing it against Max or any other car. This is what we were referring to.

"Valtteri obviously, this was maybe a miscommunication between him and some of the guys, and this is why we reiterated it."

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