SILVERSTONE, July 19 — Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff defended British Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton after a first lap collision with Red Bull’s Formula One leader Max Verstappen on Sunday.

The high-speed incident at Silverstone ended Verstappen’s race and slashed the Dutch driver’s championship lead from 33 points to eight after 10 rounds.

Hamilton was handed a 10-second penalty for causing a collision, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner angrily denouncing the seven-times world champion for an amateur and ‘desperate’ move.

"Everybody has an opinion, and that’s OK,” Wolff told reporters in response.

"Of course every team will have a certain bias towards incidents like that.

"It is a situation that I guess we all have seen in the past when great drivers race with each other. When nobody is prepared to give in, then these kind of situations can happen. But for me it takes two to tango.”

Wolff said had the incident happened at a lower speed corner, the outcry would have been far less.

"The stewards think 10 seconds was appropriate, I guess because both drivers were part of the accident, not one alone,” he added. "It’s always much more nuanced.” — Reuters