George Russell said he would not “give a sweat” about losing sixth place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix to team-mate Lewis Hamilton after Mercedes brought him in for a late pit stop.
Hamilton passed Yuki Tsunoda at the start to move up to seventh and just behind Russell, who changed his medium tires to the hard compound at the end of the 21st lap.
Hamilton sat out for six more laps of the 63-lap contest before making his own stop, giving him a tire advantage as the race headed towards its end.
With Russell’s tires going out and leaving him at high risk of being overtaken by Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez if he was out for too long and then forced to pit, Mercedes decided to bring him in for to come forward. of the Mexican.
Hamilton would claim the eight points on offer for finishing sixth, while Russell took six points to finish seventh, plus an extra point for fastest lap of the race on his fresh tyres.
“You’re never going to be happy with P6 and P7,” Russell told Sky Sports F1.
“At the end of the day, as a team we got an extra point. I lost my place to Lewis, but I’m not going to sulk about losing P6.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff explained why Russell was told, during a team radio chat before he stopped, that Hamilton would not let him through to retake sixth place.
“His lap times were getting slower and slower, and our prediction was that he wasn’t going to finish and we didn’t want to lose the position to Perez,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
“Lewis probably would have taken him anyway. The thing is we’re fighting for P6 and P7 and we wanted to keep Red Bull back. It was a safety call.”
Hamilton and Russell: We’re in no man’s land
Mercedes remained well clear of world championship leader Max Verstappen, who held off Lando Norris for victory after a late charge from the McLaren driver.
Charles Leclerc took the final podium spot for Ferrari, with teammate Carlos Sainz fifth behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
“This is where we are right now,” Russell added. “Not far behind the Ferraris and McLarens by any means, but ahead of the midfield.
“Everyone is still extremely motivated, morale is not down at all, which is very inspiring to say. Everyone is trying to make this work and improve it.
“Everyone in Brackley and Brixworth is running on petrol at the moment which is great. We have to keep pushing.
“At the end of the day, we maximized it.”
Hamilton, who is leaving Mercedes at the end of the season to join Ferrari, offered a similar assessment of his teammate.
“We got points so that’s positive,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“We’re a little bit in the middle of ground zero, but I think it was a strong finish overall for us. I don’t think we had much more to give.”
Wolff: We are making strides
Having failed to field a championship-contending car for the third year of Formula 1’s latest design regulations, Mercedes have endured a miserable start to their 2024 campaign.
They have accumulated just 79 points from the first seven rounds and are already 189 points behind leaders Red Bull.
The upgrades brought to Miami and Imola appear to have provided slightly more stability, but they have accepted that they won’t be able to compete with the frontrunners until the next batch of upgrades arrive sometime during the summer.
“You can’t see it in the result that we’re making strides with where we want the car to be,” added Wolff.
“We’re 30-plus seconds off the fastest guys and that’s a lot of P6 and P7 we can’t be proud of.
“You can hear the frustration in my voice, but there’s more to come and it’s incremental, marginal gains that we have to make. That’s the way the sport goes.”
Then it was time for the most famous F1 race of all – the Monaco Grand Prix. Watch every session from the famous road circuit from Friday live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month subscription – No contract, cancel anytime