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Toto Wolff was furious with ‘everybody involved’ after George Russell was knocked out of qualifying in Q1 at an eventful Saturday for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Mercedes are riding high having won back-to-back races for the first time in several years.
They were hoping to bring that momentum into the Hungaroring this week with a chance of making it three consecutive victories.
Russell and Lewis Hamilton were leading the way in the long stints in practice, but they struggled once the weather changed later in the day.
The young British driver then paid the price in a messy Q1 session that resulted in him finishing 17th.
Toto Wolff was unhappy after qualifying
GETTY
Hamilton similarly came close to being knocked out in Q2 before he recovered to take fifth place for Sunday’s race.
But Wolff was furious with how Mercedes handled a messy qualifying session and also took aim at Russell.
“That was a total underperformance from literally everybody involved here,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“Losing a car in Q1 is just not on… driver-team combination, it shouldn’t happen.
“And at the end we just didn’t have the pace. A very, very disappointing day.
“The car could have been two-tenths off, but we were going up and down with tyre temperatures and it was tricky to find a middle ground to give [Hamilton] a car that had grip.
“[Russell] should have had the first lap in when Lewis went P1. He said that was probably taking it too easy.
“Then the other one was we put a lap of fuel too little in, but it was a different run plan. It was a fast-slow-fast and he decided to do three fast laps.
“Overall it’s 70 per cent the team’s mistake on not fuelling one lap more.”
Hamilton was a bit more positive about his position on the grid for Sunday’s race.
George Russell was knocked out in Q1
REUTERS
However, he couldn’t understand why the car suddenly lost pace later in the day compared to their rivals.
“We came to try and be at the front and you can never be satisfied,” Hamilton said.
“I think we did an ok job and I think we’ve done everything we could.
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Lewis Hamilton couldn’t understand why he lost pace in qualifying
REUTERS
“We got the car in a relatively decent place, but when it gets hot we’re just not particularly fast.
“When the session started it was much cooler and we were rapid.
“As soon as the temperature picked up, others got faster and we got slower – or didn’t get any faster at least.”
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