Mercedes takes blame for headrest incident

Mercedes has taken the blame for the issue that cost Lewis Hamilton victory in Baku.

Hamilton was forced to pit during the Azerbaijan race when the FIA spotted him physically holding his loose headrest in place at high speed with one hand.

The obvious conclusion was that, during the red flag stoppage, a Mercedes team member did not - in Dr Helmut Marko’s words - "attach Hamilton’s headrest properly".

But Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said there would be no blame game.

"This team has won three world championships and I will not point the finger at a single person," he said.

In the days since Baku, the Brackley based team has looked into what went wrong.

Team chairman Niki Lauda told Osterreich newspaper: "The pins that attach the headrest did not click into the socket.

"This was worsened by the heavy load caused by the air at high speed. We will do a redesign so that this does not happen again.

"This should have been an easy win for us," Lauda added.

However, Lauda did say he was happy for Red Bull to have won the race instead.

"I’m happy for them," he said. "It gives them the boost they need before the Austrian grand prix."