Toto Wolff defends Lewis Hamilton's recent results after seven-time champion qualifies seventh for Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has defended Lewis Hamilton after he qualified seventh for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this year. Hamilton finished two places and 0.212 seconds behind his Mercedes teammate George Russell, who was 1.353 seconds behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who took pole.

Ad/> This season Hamilton has been struggling with porpoising issues with his car and has finished behind Russell in Spain, Monaco and Baku. Azerbaijani Grand PrixPerez, Verstappen and Hamilton all downbeat after Baku GP struggles18 HOURS AGO However, Mercedes boss Wolff says Hamilton is trying out new ways to fix a new aerodynamic problem which is caused by the airflow under the car being disrupted.

«Lewis has been trying some quite experimental parts of the car and there was a different floor solution on his car that didn't work,» Wolff said. «I am very close to it and I see one session one is faster and then next the other is.

And because the car is on a knife edge, if you put a foot wrong, in terms of experiments on the car — which need to be done in order for us to learn how to perform and where to put the car — there is 0.2-0.3secs immediately between them. »And the last three races these experiments have gone wrong with Lewis and not with George." Red Bull tensions could give Leclerc chance to win in Baku and the F1 championship Perez, Verstappen and Hamilton all downbeat after Baku GP struggles Mercedes brought in a new floor design for the Spanish Grand Prix to solve the issue of bouncing, but the issue of bottoming remains.

Russell said: «The bottoming has been extreme. We have finally got on top of the porpoising issue and we are now so close to the ground to get the maximum aerodynamic benefits and it's just brutal out