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At the Sakhir Grand Prix, Mercedes had the worst race of the season, earning just seven points. Team rookie George Russell, who replaced Lewis Hamilton this weekend, had every chance of winning, but an error at a pit stop when he received tires from a teammate and a puncture to his left rear wheel, led the Brit to finish ninth. However, George won the first three points in Formula 1, for ninth place and the best lap.
Valtteri Bottas lost his second place options during the pit stop and finished eighth.
Valtteri Bottas (8th): “I didn’t start in the best way, it got away from me, so I went wrong. George got off to a good start and was in full control of the race after that.
The start of my second segment looked pretty promising – I had a good pace and started to make up for George’s gap. If it weren’t for the safety car, closer to the finish line, George and I would have had an interesting battle.
When we got to the pitstop during the safety car, there was some kind of tire confusion, that was it for me. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I got back on track with the same hard tires that I drove on. Obviously, the pit stop cannot be considered ideal: I lost position and did not get new tires, which made it difficult for me to start again, so I lost even more positions.
It’s always easy to criticize after it’s over, but we get through it together. Usually the team goes through these situations with dignity. We will carefully evaluate what happened to understand what conclusions can be drawn.
George performed well, he was very unlucky. I think I could have won the race. Overall it was a difficult day for the team, but we will be back on track in a few days and I will do my best to finish the season with a good result. “
George Russell (9th): “I don’t know how to describe the full range of emotions that I am experiencing right now. On the one hand, I am proud of the work done this weekend. I was surrounded by amazing people who worked so hard to prepare for qualifying and the race, but today everything was terrible. I used to run races where my wins were taken away from me, but it happened twice today, I still can’t believe it!
From the beginning I kept the situation under control, took care of the tires and kept the lead over Valtteri. Then, at the pit stop, everything went very wrong. I guess it was due to communication problems. As a result, we ended up in the role of catching up, but I think we can still win.
Then the car began to behave strangely; I didn’t want to believe it was a flat tire. I wanted to continue, but it was impossible. I am depressed but proud of what we have achieved and very happy to have the opportunity to drive this car this weekend.
Congratulations to Sergio. He’s been racing in Formula 1 for a long time, he’s a great driver and he deserves to win. “
Andrew Shovlin, Chief Race Engineer: “Disappointing result as we had George’s winning double and first place. The pit stop problems have to do with the way our radio message priority system works, which has done us a lot of damage.
When the safety car entered the track, we told the mechanics to get ready and bring the tires of each car to the pit lane. When this message was broadcast, another radio message overlapped the first one for a very short time, and part of the first one did not reach the mechanics who were collecting the tires. In fact, a similar situation could arise at any time in recent seasons.
All subsequent troubles were the result of this. Of course, this is not the fault of any of the mechanics who work wonderfully throughout the season. Obviously this caused damage to our riders’ positions, they both fell back and Valtteri has yet to receive new tires.
George did an excellent job, reaching the top, but it was obvious that his failures were not over yet; In the last laps we noticed a puncture caused by debris on the track. We had no choice but to call him back to the pits. However, he was determined and did not give up, he climbed to the top ten and showed the best lap.
We have to work to fix the problems encountered at the pit stop, but we have time until the next race. We are going to Abu Dhabi with the aim of finishing the season with a good result. “
