Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has described a “total lack of performance” after two of his drivers qualified poorly at the Hungarian GP.
Lewis Hamilton, fresh from a great British GP victory, could only place his car in fifth, while George Russell crashed in the first qualifying session in changing conditions. as Mark delivers mixed contract response
Russell had a poor first lap after restarting in drier conditions and will start Sunday’s race in 17th place.
After the red flag for Sergio Perez’s giant boom, the track surface was dry, so all 20 cars raced back to collect lap times in better conditions.
Russell’s first lap after the restart was enough to get him 15th, but when he tried to complete more laps he was disappointed to find the Mercedes without enough fuel and eventually crashed.
Wolff unhappy with Mercedes team
After qualifying, Wolff admitted his team’s fundamental mistake in not refueling Russell’s car during the second lap, but said he believed Russell would take responsibility.
The British driver’s first two practice laps were poor and left him in a position where he had to try more laps on used tyres.
Wolff also revealed that Russell’s car ran two hot laps with a slow cool-down lap in between, but the 26-year-old opted to do three fast laps after qualifying.” day
“I think the car could have been two. tenths down but we went up and down with the tire temperature and it was hard to find the middle ground to give him a car with that kind of grip.”easy, and then another that we put too little fuel, but it was a different race plan, fast slow and he decided to do three fast laps, but overall I think it’s 70% the team’s fault that he didn’t complete another lap.
