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Wolff "agreed to disagree" with stewards over Hamilton penalties

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says he has "agreed to disagree" with the FIA stewards after Lewis Hamilton received two five-second penalties during the Russian Grand Prix

The FIA deemed that Hamilton had performed two practice starts beyond the area specified in the pre-event notes issued to teams by race director Michael Masi.

After taking the penalty at his only pit stop, Hamilton finished third behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, but also received two penalty points on his licence putting him just a single incident away from a one-race ban.

Wolff revealed that after the investigation was announced - shortly before the start of the race - he and Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows went to see the stewards.

Wolff also insisted that he wouldn't apportion blame to Hamilton or the team for triggering what he called a "far-fetched" penalty.

"The errors always happen together," he said when asked about the incident by Autosport.

"It's not a team error, it's not a Lewis error. And I wouldn't want to point at anybody, and I've never done that.

"Ron [Meadows] and I were at the stewards, the verdict was he wasn't in the right place.

"There is no mention what the right place is in the director's note, nor is it in the regulations. So we disagree on that one - we agree to disagree on that one.

"The other one was not driving at constant speed in the reconnaissance laps, and there again, it's debatable.

"But the race has happened. He received the 10 seconds penalty.

"So for a reconnaissance lap infringement an in-race penalty can be debated also, but you have to take it on the chin and move on.

"I'm not happy with the penalty, because it's far-fetched, but we agree to disagree. I will always respect the stewards in their job, but on that one, we just agree to disagree."

Wolff insisted that Masi's notes did not specify exactly where drivers could conduct practice starts, and that there was no advantage gained from where he did the start.

"The race director's notes say, if I'm well-informed, that you must do practice starts after the lights on the right side of the pitlane. And that's what happened," he said.

"The designated place, it says after the lights, at the right side. It does specify that the practice starts need to be done after the lights on the right side."

"You know, things are not always black and white, and there's room for interpretation. There are rules that can be interpreted in two ways. There is common sense. There is the fact that then an in-race penalty was given, actually two in-race penalties were given, for an infringement that happened before the race.

"And there was an argument that he gained an advantage by making the [practice starts] there, I think it was not an advantage because there was no grip, so much less grip than you would have on your starting positions. It is what it is at the end of the day, obviously, we're all emotional about that."

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