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While Russell and Bottas, who fought on behalf of Mercedes at the Sakhir GP, took the race comfortably in the top two places, Mercedes Williams called them to the pits to give their drivers new tires in case there were drivers turning back. after Jack Aitken’s accident.
At first it seemed that Russell made a relatively normal pit stop, and Bottas who followed lost a lot of time in the pit stop. Putting on Bottas’ left front tire, the mechanics realized that the tire he was wearing was Russell’s tire. This meant the wrong tires were installed on Russell. Bottas was then fitted with his old tires.
Realizing that Russell had installed bottas on the front tires of his vehicle, Mercedes called Russell back for the next round and installed the correct tires. After these pit stops, Bottas fell to fourth place behind the safety car, while Russell fell to fifth place.
Despite this, Russell quickly rose to second place and appeared to be a partner in the fight for victory, but was only able to be ninth when the tire broke.
In the statement made after the race, the FIA announced that Mercedes was under scrutiny.
In the statement, “When vehicle number 63 was taken to the pits for a tire change at 9:16 PM, the reserved tires for vehicle number 77 were installed on its front end.
“Vehicle # 63 exited the pit lane and after one lap returned to the pits again for the correct set of tires. Since this is against clauses 24.2 and 24.3 e, I am sending it to the umpires for their consideration. “. His words were included.
Speaking to Sky F1 after the race, team boss Toto Wolff said: “We totally screwed it up. (Big shit).”
“Someone from the vehicle team did not hear the pit call. We had a problem with the radio, and when the vehicle arrived at the pit, we did not know if we had to change the tires. In this process, we put the wrong tires. Then we had to go back. to the pit “. said.
