Mercedes drivers finish fourth and fifth, achieving a stronger performance than anticipated at the challenging Mexican Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton finished 4th and George Russell 5th at the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday.
Both drivers started on Medium tyres, with Hamilton getting the better of his teammate through the opening corners. Later in the first stint, Russell used DRS to reclaim the position before both cars pitted and managed to move ahead of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, which had served a 20-second penalty for forcing Lando Norris’s McLaren off the track during multiple incidents.
Early in his second stint, it became evident that the upper element of Russell’s front wing had sustained damage. Despite this issue, his pace remained strong, and both cars began to pull away from Verstappen behind them.
In the closing stages, Hamilton overtook Russell for 4th place at Turn 1.
“We ultimately made progress and brought home some good points for the team today. We didn’t appear particularly strong in the first stint; I didn’t have enough front wing in the car and suffered from significant understeer. We managed to improve the balance at our second stop, and our pace picked up. Even if we’d had that speed in the first stint, we still wouldn’t have had the pace to compete with those ahead for the podium. Finishing 4th and 5th is still slightly better than what we had anticipated today, so we can be pleased with our afternoon.”
“This weekend hasn’t been the smoothest for the team, but we’ve gathered a great deal of information on both specifications. We can now analyse this data and determine the best course of action for next weekend in Brazil and the remainder of the season. I hope we can place the car in a slightly better position for Interlagos and challenge Ferrari and McLaren.”
George Russell noted that he had “a good first stint, but I hit a bump while overtaking Oscar Piastri’s McLaren at the start of my second stint, which caused damage to the front wing. It cost me a few tenths per lap in terms of performance, which is a bit unfortunate.”
“We had to manage more than 30 laps with that issue, but even without it, we wouldn’t have had the pace to fight for the podium. Overall, we probably deserved to be 4th and 5th today as a team, and maybe a little better than what we had expected before the race.”
“We’ll keep working hard to improve, as we want to fight at the front. We’re making steady progress with the car, as you can see from the gap we’ve opened up with the teams behind us in the championship. We’ve also narrowed the gap to Red Bull since the beginning of the season, but it’s clear that Ferrari and McLaren have made even more strides. We’ll use these last four races of the season to continue developing our understanding, try different things, and set ourselves up well for next year.”
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Mercedes Optimises Mexico GP: Hamilton P4, Russell P5 Mercedes Optimises Mexico GP: Hamilton P4, Russell P5
