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Wolff: 'We lost the race on Saturday with Hamilton'

Wolff: 'We lost the race on Saturday with Hamilton'

31-07-2022 17:24
23

GPblog.com

Toto Wolff can be satisfied after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Mercedes finished with both drivers on the podium for the second race in a row. However, the team boss does not want to cheer too soon.

George Russell drove a surprising qualifying session on Saturday and took pole position, but in the race the poleman was unfortunately beaten by teammate Lewis Hamilton. The Briton had to defend against the Ferrari drivers at the start of the race and ended up fighting several times.

"George had a great qualifying session with pole and drove a super solid race but he was always in the fight and therefore utilizing the tyres and leaning on it a lot. Then he ran a bit out of tyres at the end of the second stint," Wolff told Sky Sports.

Wolff would have liked to see fight against Verstappen

Hamilton started the race from P7, but eventually managed to finish ahead of his teammate. "He was a bit in the shadow and no one was looking at him and then suddenly banged in lap times quicker than the leaders. If he didn't fail the DRS who knows? I think there would have been a fun fight for victory," continued the Mercedes team boss.

At Ferrari, the race was dramatic with another poor strategy. Things went particularly wrong for Charles Leclerc, as the Monegasque had to make a third pit stop after being put on hard tyres by Ferrari. "They took the risk to undercut us and go very early on the tyre. It's not clear if it was a 1 stop or two-stop. It was too early for us and they took the gamble and it paid off."

"At least we have a result that we can work with. W had a very bad Friday so w know what not to do, but Spa is very different. Let's not celebrate yet, because we are still behind," Wolff finished.