Mercedes Drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell Face Perplexity at Monza

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Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, found themselves in a state of perplexity after their performance at Monza failed to live up to the initial expectations of competitiveness. Despite Hamilton's impressive showings in the second and third free practice sessions, as well as in Q2 where he topped the charts, the team struggled during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

The baffling turn of events left both drivers scratching their heads, trying to comprehend why Mercedes couldn't translate their practice pace into qualifying and race results. The unpredictability of Formula 1's pecking order was glaringly evident as Hamilton qualified in sixth place and Russell in third, only to finish the race in fifth and seventh positions respectively.

This unexpected outcome has raised questions within the Mercedes camp, prompting a thorough analysis of what went wrong and how they can bounce back stronger in the upcoming races. The team's engineers and strategists are now dissecting the data, looking for clues to unlock the full potential of their cars and drivers.

Hamilton finished the race just 22.8 seconds behind the winner, Charles Leclerc, and mentioned that Mercedes was experiencing some difficulties 'more degradation” as well as “generally lacking one or two tenths” One lap under race conditions.

When questioned about the equilibrium of the W15, the seven-time world champion further commented: “It was ok, it was nothing special. You're either graining the left front or graining the left rear. We just didn't have the pace. We have to go and look and try to understand why.

“Also, because we looked better on Friday, we got almost slower through the weekend, or others got faster, or we were too light and they were heavy, who knows?”

Russell's subpar performance was largely attributed to a mistake he made in the first corner of the opening lap, causing him to use the escape road and consequently fall back to seventh place.. Having suffered significant performance loss due to front wing damage following the incident, he was forced to pit earlier than scheduled.

The Mercedes driver believes that achieving a victory or podium finish would have been a challenging task regardless, as the incident significantly hampered his chances.

“I just got caught out by Oscar [Piastri]'s braking point and I touched the brakes, started locking up because I was so close to him and I had to take avoiding action,” Russell stated. “It's quite upsetting when your whole weekend goes away from you so quick, but looking at the pace afterwards I don't think we would have been able to keep up with the McLarens and Ferrari.

“It was a really disappointing day, but ultimately didn't have the pace. The sport's a bit strange at the moment with how Red Bull have lost so much pace. Ferrari seemed to be struggling in Zandvoort and all the races prior, but then they were so quick on Sunday in Zandvoort and this whole weekend, so I don't really know.”