Toto Wolff's frustration at a 'difficult' Brazil GP weekend was probably best summed up in the images following Lewis Hamilton's successful move on Max Verstappen for the lead of the Brazil Grand Prix.

TV footage in the Mercedes garage showed the Austrian raise his fist in a defiant gesture aimed straight at camera - the message was clear, as were the intended recipients.

Following a weekend in which his team and driver had seemingly had everything thrown at it, Mercedes had still come out on top, despite, in Wolff's opinion, the best efforts of the stewards.

"Brilliant racing, hard defending just to the limit," the Austrian subsequently told reporters.

"Lewis was clever, super clever, avoiding the contact," he said of the controversial Lap 48 incident. "It was great to see these two super drivers, but not giving it five seconds or so? Come on!

"I'd like to see the onboard of Max actually," he admitted. "It's pretty spectacular how he does it, but I think Lewis cruising around him to avoid the contact was even better."

Clearly, that move was the successful conclusion to a tough weekend.

"The whole weekend went against us," said the Austrian. "We had a broken part on our rear wing which we couldn't look at and analyse, failed the test and was disqualified very harshly.

"And then you see on the Red Bull, repairs three times in a row on the rear wing while staying in parc ferme with no consequence.

"That's one thing and that really peaked with the decision in the race, which was really the wrong defence for Max. Absolutely an inch over the limit, but he needed to do that to defend.

"Lewis just managed it even more brilliantly by avoiding the contact and ending the race that way, but that was just over the line, it should have been a five second penalty at least. Probably Max knew that.

"But just brushing it under the carpet is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, it's laughable.

"The stewards have a difficult life anyway," he admitted, "whatever decision they take, one team is going to be grumpy. In a certain way, when you are taking punches all weekend and then you have such a situation on top of everything, you are just losing faith in a way."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 16/11/2021 10:49

"@ Finchy...For the sake of the debate why don't you read what I actually said? Wokingchap stated that the decisions taken by the stewards was 'laughable'. Why would he parrot Wolff when no one has seen the front facing onboards ATPIT? As I alluded to, they may show that Verstappen deliberately drove Hamilton off the track but then again it may not. Who knows? If it they do show Verstappen carried out a deliberate and malicious act then I'm sure that the FIA will do something about it, as they should.The stewards made their decision based on what evidence they had but to some that's 'laughable'. That alone shows an inbuilt bias and possibly wishful thinking. I await the outcome with some relish as it will make the last three races even more spicy...."

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2. Posted by Finchy, 16/11/2021 8:36

"@kenji, "Race director, Michael Masi has revealed that the Interlagos stewards did not have access to all the available footage when making their decision over Max Verstappen's move on rival Lewis Hamilton.""

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3. Posted by Finchy, 16/11/2021 8:34

"@kenji, "...my point was simply that no one can make positive/negative assumptions until all the evidence is presented."
You usually manage to though don't you!"

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4. Posted by kenji, 16/11/2021 0:29

"@ Wokingchap...my point was simply that no one can make positive/negative assumptions until all the evidence is presented. Neither Wolff or Wokingchap are privy to the on board footage ATPIT. It may well prove that. when viewed, Verstappen erred!!! In that case you and Wolff would simply have lucked out, under these circumstances. I was simply wearing, temporarily, my 'Devils Advocate' chapeau. What I would be questioning is the incredible speed differential between the two cars? This element has the greatest potential to being the critical point in the WC chase. The ease by which Hamilton was able to carve through the field rather supports that notion. That car is racing to a different formula...IMO. Roll on Qatar. "

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5. Posted by Wokingchap, 15/11/2021 18:32

"@Kenji......you will just have to wait for all that you are requesting about your assumption of my comment to become available to us all. Lewis' superb win has overshadowed that incident anyway."

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6. Posted by kenji, 15/11/2021 12:04

"@ Wokingchap...Putting on my DA hat,...could you possibly post all the data inputs from the Red Bull teams computers and the myriad collections of all camera visuals that were available to support your theory that showed that Verstappen was solely responsible but the stewards chose to ignore due to the politics that determine the stewards decisions thus rendering them 'laughable'."

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7. Posted by Spindoctor, 15/11/2021 10:01

"Max's sense of entitlement[sic] mean that he believes that "Rules" are for everyone else. It seems that FIA Stewards agree....."

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8. Posted by Wokingchap, 15/11/2021 9:56

"Well said Mr Wolf, but i think the stewarding is way beyond 'laughable'."

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Wolff hits out at "laughable" stewards decisions

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