Wolff responds to competitor Marko: 'Common sense is needed'

The exchange of words between Mercedes and Red Bull continues after Red Bull Director Helmut Marko earlier on suggested that both teams weren't treated equally. Now it is time for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff to react.

Asked by Motorsport.com for his opinion on Marko's comments after Sunday's race, Wolff said: "You need to dig quite deep to come up with things that went against Max today. I can’t comment on what they say. I think in Brazil, we felt that it was harsh against us, with a disqualification for the sprint race."

Wolff looks back at that sprint race in sentence response. "Who would have thought that we can come back? I think that Lewis could have scored three points in that sprint race, and didn’t score any. And that could be valuable points. Someone is always going to be unhappy about things. I’m trying, with all my bias, still to try to look at things with a common sense. I guess I’m not always successful in the heat of the moment.”

There were several incidents in recent weeks for which Verstappen and rival Lewis Hamilton both received penalties. For example, Hamilton received a penalty in Brazil because his rear wing fell foul of technical regulations, while Verstappen was given a grid penalty in Qatar for not braking due to yellow flags. Verstappen also received two time penalties in Saudi Arabia for unauthorised actions on Hamilton.