Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was deeply unhappy with their performance in today’s race.
The two W17s hit the front of the field immediately after the start. However Andrea Kimi Antonelli fell to second place behind Max Verstappen at the finish and George Russell retired shortly before the finish.“I’m so massively annoyed and not in a happy place,” Wolff told Sky.
Mercedes introduced a significant upgrade for their car this weekend but appeared to gain little from it. “First of all, we didn’t have the speed that we were hoping to have before the weekend,” said Wolff. “So there’s a lot of homework to be done in order to recover, which I’m sure we will.
“Then the race literally went – if you consider the fight with Lewis behind – went against us. We had such an advantage. Two VSCs or one VSC, two safety cars. I mean, you couldn’t be more unlucky.”
Russell’s retirement – his third in a grand prix this season – leaves him 84 points behind Antonelli in the championship fight.
“To make things worse, a PU failure with a few laps to go to the end with George which is terrible for his championship and not good at all for our constructor points,” Wolff continued. “So as much as I love to be here when I look at the pure races, one of my worst experiences to be honest.”
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