Toto Wolff didn’t mince his phrases within the aftermath of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after George Russell began third and completed fifth, whereas Kimi Antonelli began fifth and got here dwelling sixth.
Each have been handed by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was recovering again up the sector after a poor qualifying and was all the time going to be tough to maintain at bay. However Russell additionally misplaced out to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, who disappeared up the street to depart the Mercedes toiling far again from the leaders.
Russell was struggling together with his arduous compound tyres, even radioing at one level to ask if they might make it to the tip of the race, as a line of blisters may very well be clearly seen on his entrance left. However he did see the chequered flag after one-stopping – simply fairly a while after Oscar Piastri had received the race.
“Clearly our worst efficiency so removed from the yr. The tempo simply dropped away with a blistering tyre and overheating tyres, and up to now we haven’t acquired the reasons,” Wolff mentioned afterwards.
