Toto Wolff left Ted Kravitz baffled by insisting that Mercedes were the second-quickest team at the Hungarian Grand Prix despite failing to get themselves on the podium. The Silver Arrows went into Sunday’s race with high hopes of troubling Max Verstappen for victory, with Lewis Hamilton having started from pole position after beating the Dutchman fair and square in qualifying.
The Brit went on to suffer a nightmare start as he dropped three positions at the very first corner before settling for a fourth-placed finish at the end of the 70-lap contest. It was a different story for George Russell, though, as he fought impressively from 18th on the grid to cross the line in sixth position.
Wolff was quick to focus on the positives in his post-race interview on Sky Sports F1 and even insisted that Mercedes were quicker than every team on the grid apart from Red Bull, leaving Kravitz baffled after the Silver Arrows lagged behind McLaren for the majority of the race.
“We had the second fastest car,” said Wolff, before Kravitz pulled a face and asked: “Do you?!” Wolff replied: “Yeah, yeah, if you look at the lap time profile, also where George came from, but we just didn’t monetise on it.”
The Mercedes team principal went on to explain that an overly cautious approach did little to aid Hamilton’s hopes of getting on the podium, saying: “The start played a role and we brought the tyres in carefully, and maybe too careful. We reeled in about 15 seconds at the end.
“That is what it is, this is not a mediocracy. We will win races and championships. We knew his pace [Verstappen] after Friday, it’s like a bunch of Formula Two cars ahead of Formula One. They have just done the best job.”
Hamilton, meanwhile, was at a loss to explain why Mercedes were so far off the pace in Budapest despite rivalling Red Bull’s one-lap speed in qualifying on Saturday.
“The balance of the car was pretty awful on that first stint,” said Hamilton. “A lot of understeer, to snap oversteer, through corner balance and I just couldn’t keep up with them, but then as we got through the next couple of stints the car started to become much more drivable.
“The last stint obviously was much better. If we had the pace we had at the end [earlier in the race], we would have been a little bit better I think through the day, but I’m going to take the positives from yesterday. It was an amazing effort from the team to get to where we were and to beat everybody in qualifying was really spectacular for us.”
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