Max Verstappen had a super start at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Because of this he drove next to Lewis Hamilton before the first corner started. The world champion tried to maintain his position on the outside, but failed and even sustained some damage. Damage that according to Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, affected him throughout the race.
"The incident in the first corner cost us two tenths and almost fifteen points in downforce," Wolff said in an interview with ORF. The latter is gibberish to the outsider, but those two tenths per lap slower is a significant disadvantage. At first Mercedes even thought the situation was worse.
Broken part brought more downforce
According to chief engineer Andrew Shovlin Mercedes even thought that the damage would cost 'about half a second' per lap. That was because the wing endplate was dangling from the front wing and caused a lot of turbulence towards the rear of the car. When that part broke off, the downward pressure also increased.
Shovlin does believe that this damage played a role in the course of the race. "The problem is that we're so close to Max's pace that [those few tenths] make the difference as to whether we can keep up or fall a little behind."