Upset for Toto Wolff after Mercedes' sprint performance: "Bruising day"

Toto Wolff is left scratching his head after Mercedes didn't have the pace on the soft tyres during the Brazil sprint race. Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made an impressive start but then dropped backwards through the field. Hamilton was even passed by Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda in the closing stages.

Headache for Mercedes

Russell looked to attack Lando Norris and even briefly overtook him in the sprint race. But it was downhill from then onwards. The Mercedes team boss was left to answer questions about their race in a conversation with Sky Sports.

"We pushed very hard at the start. The car was not balanced right, and then we had sliding. We had too weak of a rear end. It's balancing them on a knife edge. Trying to hold on to the pace was something we can learn for tomorrow [Sunday]," Wolff said.

Wolff then summarised Mercedes' Saturday: "It's a bruising day". Hamilton will start the Brazilian Grand Prix in fifth place, so will need to make some overtaking moves if he is to gain on Sergio Perez. Wolff isn't confident Mercedes will be able to improve the situation. "No magic screw to turn and fix it. Everything went against us. We need to scratch our heads hard for what we can do tomorrow and improve," Wolff concluded.